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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24977866">The bard's daughter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ledgea/pseuds/Ledgea'>Ledgea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The witchers' grapevine [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cat School (The Witcher), Crack Treated Seriously, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Weird sort of parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:22:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>45,645</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24977866</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ledgea/pseuds/Ledgea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaskier is traipsing around the continent, living his life.<br/>Geralt finally finds his daughter and loses her almost immediately again.<br/>Ciri is mistaken for Jaskier's bastard daughter and passed around witchers who just want to find the damn bard to give him his daughter back.<br/>And along the way, she meets new people and learns new skills and wonders where her surprise father disappeared to and how long it can take to find one bard.</p><p>Sequel to "The witchers' stalker"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aiden/Coën/Lambert (The Witcher), Aiden/Lambert (The Witcher), Cirilla &amp; Witchers, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon &amp; Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia &amp; Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Jaskier | Dandelion &amp; Other Witcher(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The witchers' grapevine [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794697</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>386</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Polyamorous Relationships For the Win</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. I'll come back for you but in the meantime, run and find Jaskier.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>And the sequel is finally here!<br/>I've already written the first seven chapters and two drabbles and a half but it isn't finished yet! I'm working on it!</p><p>This fic is centered around Ciri and witchers. Geralt and Jaskier are present but more in the background. </p><p>There may be some shipping later on, if I can make the characters cooperate with me, or new developments so I may update the tags!!</p><p>Enjoy and see you soon!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Geralt is watching Cirilla sleep from where he is sitting under a tree, all of his senses on alert. She is grimacing in his bedroll, shivering despite the fire close to her and her brows are furrowed. He should wake her up before she wakes up screaming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They had only been travelling together for two weeks now, but already he's attached. He'd like to say that he doesn't care about the girl, his child, but that would be lying. He likes her, maybe even loves her already.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That thought is a frightening one, he didn't think that emotions this strong could grow in such a short time. Even his friendship with Jaskier or his bonds with his brothers took time to flourish and strenghten. His relationship with Ciri feels easy, natural in some ways.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He approaches the girl from the tree where he is standing guard and shakes her shoulder gently. She gasps, rolls away from him and comes back up in a crouch with a snarl on her face. He hates to see her like this. She should be happy, laughing and carefree, instead she's scared and angry. He sees her taking in her surroundings and relaxing when she spots him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She straightens and comes to him. He opens his arms and she burrows against his chest. He's a little bit uncomfortable but forces himself to relax his muscles, to make himself more welcoming for his daughter.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He lets Ciri sniffle in his shirt and hides his grimace while she's at it. She settles soon enough and falls back asleep. Geralt eyes the bedroll with longing and decides to get down on it. He falls asleep by accident.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When he wakes up again, his arms are empty and he panics before spotting Ciri nibbling on some jerky next to the fire's embers. He grunts and joins her. Her eyes are red and puffy, she's got mud and twigs in her hair and Geralt winces when he imagines her grandmother's reaction if she could be able to see her in this state. He feels like a failure. He should be able to take better care of her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They leave camp after their meagre breakfast and continue to head north. He has Ciri in front of him in the saddle and can't see her face but she's not speaking. She usually spends her mornings in silence and relaxes enough to start a conversation with him in the afternoons.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He has started to quizz her on her geography and is trying to impart some of his knowledge to her, kingdoms, towns, important places, important people's names. When she grows tired of hearing about foreign lands and people she usually knows by name, he tells her about monsters. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The subject can be a bit terse, and she's not always interested, but it's something he knows and can speak about without feeling awkward. It's on one of those afternoons, still in the middle of Sodden, speaking about basilisks that Geralt hears several horses coming their way. He stops Roach and leads her in the undergrowth. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He leaves Ciri with Roach in a clearing in the forest and backtracks quickly to take a look at the company. The men look like bandits but their posture and weapons betray them, they are soldiers. Well armed and numerous soldiers at that. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He lets them pass without a word and goes back to Ciri who startles when she sees him. He explains the situation to her and they move on quietly. Geralt doesn't know to whom the soldiers belong, if they are King Foltest's or Nilfgardiaans who bypassed the northern army, but he is not taking any chances.</p>
<p>
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<p>They spend the rest of the day leading Roach on foot in the forest and staying alert. They stop at a stream in the evening to fill their waterskin, wash quickly and renew the layer of mud in Ciri's hair. Then they abandon the small river and Geralt looks for a sheltered place to spend the night.</p>
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<p>They stop in a small clearing hidden from the road and eat their dried rations in silence. They'll have to sleep in the dark too, with no fire, and Geralt hopes that it won't bother Ciri too much. He gets the bedroll out and motions for his daughter to take it. She sits down on it gingerly and watches him make an inventory of their supplies. They are dangerously low on food and probably will need to stop in a village soon.</p>
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<p>“What is it?”, Ciri asks him when she sees him grimacing.</p>
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<p>“We'll need to stop into a town soon. We're low on food and seeing as I've been hunting less...”</p>
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<p>Ciri furrows her brows and says hesitantly, “You could go hunting again, I can stay alone for a while. I'm not a baby, you know.”</p>
<p>
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<p>Geralt watches her and hums. He doesn't like to leave her alone, even for only a few minutes. She doesn't shout out to him, or start crying as soon as she can't see him, but the witcher can hear her heartbeat go faster and faster as he walks away. And when he comes back, she's usually shivering and deathly pale. He tried it three times already and hated the outcome every time.</p>
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<p>“Don't worry,” he tells her, “We'll manage.”</p>
<p>
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<p>Ciri sleeps in his arms that night and she wakes him up twice from nightmares. He offers her some breakfast and they leave again. They stay in the forest and reach a town in the afternoon. Geralt scouts the area carefully, puts on a hood and leaves Ciri on Roach at the edge of the town. He purchases more dried meat, dried fruit and even some fresh radishes he hopes his daughter will like.</p>
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<p>When he comes back, Ciri is clutching Roach's reins tightly and trembling a little. She relaxes slowly when she spots him and grins when he presents the radishes to her. She swallows them down in a matter of seconds and winces when she sees that Geralt didn't eat any.</p>
<p>
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<p>“Don't worry,” he says to her while ruffling her hair, “They were for you. I'm glad you liked them.”</p>
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<p>Ciri beams at him, “Thank you, Geralt !”</p>
<p>
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<p>Their luck holds for the night but they cross path with the same band of soldiers again in the morning. The stay in the forest again but soon learn that they are being chased. Geralt thinks that someone in the last town must have recognized him and sold him out. Jaskier's songs maybe made him a tiny bit too famous.</p>
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<p>They manage to stay ahead of their pursuers for the rest of the day but Geralt knows that Roach is tiring and Ciri is starting to panic. He needs a plan and fast. When another group, that sounds like mercenaries, joins the soldiers in their hunt, Geralt decides to confront them. They won't be able to keep their rhythm up anyway and a distraction might allow them to loose their pursuers.</p>
<p>
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<p>He leads Roach back to the road and dismounts as soon as they reach the path. He fiddles with Roach's stirrups to adjust them to Ciri's size and takes the saddlebag containing his potions and some of his belongings.</p>
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<p>“Geralt, what are you doing ? Geralt ?”</p>
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<p>Ciri is starting to panic and tries to scramble off the horse after him. Geralt stops her and hugs her tight.</p>
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<p>“Listen to me, Ciri, we're not going to be able to loose our pursuers. We need a distraction.”</p>
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<p>“You're not leaving me,” she sobs in his shirt, “You're not leaving me. Geralt, don't leave me. I don't want to be alone.”</p>
<p>
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<p>Geralt's heart breaks but he knows that an ambush and then a false trail is probably the only thing that will save them.</p>
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<p>“It's only for a while, I'll come back,” he promises her in a whisper. “You take Roach and continue on, I'll find you. Cirilla, do you understand ?”</p>
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<p>His daughter continues to sob on him and Geralt shakes her a little.</p>
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<p>“Ciri, listen to me, listen to me,” he orders, “It's the only way ! You take Roach north and I'll come after you when it's safe. You have the bedroll, the food, the water and my purse in the saddlebag, you'll be fine.”</p>
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<p>Ciri is still sobbing but she's looking at him and nodding. She begins to scrub at her face.</p>
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<p>“Don't mention my name to anyone”, he continues, “Try to keep your hair brown and go north.”</p>
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<p>“You'll find me ?”</p>
<p>
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<p>“Of course,” he reassures her, “I already did it once, I'll do it again.”</p>
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<p>“But what if you don't come back. What if they kill you, like they killed Eist ?”</p>
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<p>“They won't.”</p>
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<p>Geralt tries to distangle himself from Ciri but she's holding on tightly.</p>
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<p>“But what do I do if you can't come back ? What do I do ?”</p>
<p>
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<p>“I'll come back.”</p>
<p>
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<p>“But what if you <em>don't</em> ? I can't trust anyone ! I'll be alone !”</p>
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<p>The sobs are back and Geralt can hear Ciri's heartbeat pounding, she's panicking. Geralt strokes her hands and leads them to Roach's reins.</p>
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<p>“Geralt ! Geralt ! What if... what if... ?”</p>
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<p>She doesn't manage to end her sentences and Geralt hates to see her like that. He needs to find something to calm her down and quickly, he can hear their pursuers approaching.</p>
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<p>“Okay, Ciri, okay”, he says in a placating tone of voice, “If I'm not back in a week, look for Jaskier. He's my friend, a bard, and he knows that you're my child surprise. He'll take care of you until I can come back to you. He should be in Temeria, somewhere near Vizima. Do you understant ?”</p>
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<p>Ciri nods and repeats after him, “Jaskier the bard near Vizima, he'll help me.”</p>
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<p>“Good”, says Geralt firmly, “Now you need to leave. Push Roach hard on the road and when she tires, go in the forest. Try not to stop tonight and rest tomorrow away from the roads. Okay ?”</p>
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<p>She nods and Geralt kisses her forehead while he strokes her tears away. He's contemplating her safety, and at the last minute he thrusts one of his daggers into her small hand. She clutches it tightly, offers him a wobbly smile and spurs Roach on. Geralt doesn't watch her leave and starts to prepare his ambush.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile in Vizima, Jaskier finds himself running away from the city in the company of a very pissed off Auckes. He'd like to make it known that the situation isn't his fault, at all, how could he have possibly known that the duke's daughter he seduced the night before was betrothed to the king's nephew ?</p>
<p>
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<p>He happened upon Auckes in his mad dash for the gates of the city, with the royal guards hot on his heels, and commandeered his help. After a few more years meeting witchers, he is confident enough to run to them for help now. And they seem to tolerate him most of the time, when he doesn't bring trouble.</p>
<p>
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<p>They are following the river Ismena together and are headed east under a blazing sun. Auckes ditches Jaskier on the third day of their shared travel because he can't stand the chattering anymore and the bard continues on, oblivious to Geralt's troubles a country over.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A welcome encounter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Ciri is tired, desperate, frightened and so hungry when she decides to stop at a tavern. It's been a week since Geralt ordered her to flee and he hasn't come back yet. None of their pursuers found her either so that's a good thing at least. She spent her first night riding Roach hard on the road and then in the forest before leading her on foot the next day. She had been exhausted when they had stopped for the night.</p><p> </p><p>She then stayed mostly in the forest, huddled against Roach in the night and tried to make her food rations last for as long as she could stretch them. She ate the last piece of dried meat at breakfast and found a tavern at midday. She is now debating entering it. On one hand, she desperatly wants a hot meal, on the other hand, she doesn't want to be recognized and Geralt isn't here to help her if things go south.</p><p> </p><p>She fidgets before the tavern for at least an hour before looking for Geralt's purse and going in. It's the first time she sets foot in a village's tavern. She doesn't know how much her meal is going to cost her, if she has enough coin to afford it and wonders what they even serve. She doesn't think that she is going to find here what she used to eat at her grandmother's table, but she'll take what they serve.</p><p> </p><p>She leaves Roach bound to a post, and ready to leave, in front of the establishment before opening the door. The dining hall is sparsely illuminated and only a few people are present. They look at her when she enters and go back to their meal soon enough.</p><p> </p><p>"We don't do charity here," is the first thing the barkeep barks at her, "you can get out on your own or I'll gladly throw you out myself !"</p><p> </p><p>"I can pay," Ciri says, affronted, and jingles her purse slightly well out of reach of the man. "I'd like a meal, please."</p><p> </p><p>The man grunts at her and goes to the hearth where a massive cooking pot is hung over the flames. He pours her a bowl of stew and deposits it on a table away from anyone else. Ciri pays him and starts to eat as soon as she's sitting. The stew is hot and she feels her eyes start to water, it's her first hot meal in a week. She just misses Geralt.</p><p> </p><p>She slows down halfway through her bowl and forces herself to chew the rare pieces of meat she can find slowly. By the time she scraps the bottom of her bowl, she's openly crying and is angry with herself for it. Why can't she be more strong ? Why can't she stop having nightmares ? She throws her spoon on the table, fits a hand in her shirt over her heart and curls on herself on the bench. She desperatly wants, needs Geralt.</p><p> </p><p>The man glares at her when he comes back to take her bowl and new tears spring from her eyes. He lets her be but she feels his gaze on her and knows that he'll throw her out soon. She needs to move. But she doesn't want to, she wants a safe place, she wants someone to take care of her, at least a little.</p><p> </p><p>She's slowly getting her sobs under control when the door to the inn opens and a man walks in. Ciri looks at him quickly, averts her eyes and then looks at him again because she spotted two swords on his back. His yellow eyes shine in the dark room and she realizes that he is a witcher.</p><p> </p><p>He's not Geralt but he's someone close to him, at least in looks, and she desperatly wants to run to him. Maybe he'll be kind to her. Maybe his presence will seem as natural to her as Geralt's. Maybe he'll make her feel safe, even for just a few minutes.</p><p> </p><p>"We don't serve your kind here, mutant, get lost !"</p><p> </p><p>Ciri hears the barkeep order the witcher away and she takes a leap before the man can disappear. She gets up and rounds her table before running as fast as she can to the witcher. She collides with his chest and he grunts a little. She grips him tight and hides her tears in his shirt.</p><p> </p><p>"What the fuck ?", she hears him say.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher tries to dislodge her but she only holds onto him tighter and she lets out a whine. He finally puts his hands on her shoulders and walks awkwardly out of the inn with her still clinging to him. He then pats her back a few times and resigns himself to wait for her to let go. She finally takes a step away when her tears subside but she doesn't let go of him, he's the first human contact she has had all week and she just can't.</p><p> </p><p>"Mind letting me go ?", he asks her gruffly.</p><p> </p><p>She shakes her head, blushes and starts to apologize to him when it dawns on her that she just cried on a stranger.</p><p> </p><p>"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I just couldn't stop myself and..."</p><p> </p><p>"No harm done," the witcher says before she can start crying again, "please don't cry again."</p><p> </p><p>"I'm sorry", she whispers and looks at her hand still clutching the witcher's shirt tightly.</p><p> </p><p>"And stop apologizing. I'm going to think that you're related to frigging Jaskier otherwise."</p><p> </p><p>Ciri looks up at that because he just spoke of Jaskier, the man Geralt told her to find, like he knows him. She bites her lip and asks softly :</p><p> </p><p>"Jaskier ? The bard ?"</p><p> </p><p>The witcher watches her and asks her, "What about him ?"</p><p> </p><p>"I... I'm supposed to find him. I was told to find him."</p><p> </p><p>"By whom ?"</p><p> </p><p>Ciri bites her lips and hesitates, Geralt told her not to say his name for fear of someone working out who she is because of their connection, but then she doesn't know what to say.</p><p> </p><p>"I can't say."</p><p> </p><p>The witcher hums like Geralt and she narrows her eyes at him. He takes a lock of her dirty hair between his fingers and scrubs at it.</p><p> </p><p>"You're from Cintra, right ?", he asks gently.</p><p> </p><p>"No", she splutters and adds defiantly when he looks at her sadly, "I'm not !"</p><p> </p><p>She lets go of his shirt and crosses her arms to appear convincing. The witcher just smiles sadly at her and she glares at him. He pats her head and bypasses her to join his horse, who is tied next to Roach. He unties him, goes up in the saddle and leaves without another glance at her.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey !", she screams after him, "Don't leave me ! You didn't tell me how you know Jaskier !"</p><p> </p><p>The witcher just carries on and doesn't even bother to look back at her.</p><p> </p><p>"Don't ignore me!", she screams at him, "I'll follow you ! I swear I will !"</p><p> </p><p>He continues to ignore her and Ciri goes back to Roach fuming, all thoughts of tears and crying swiftly disappearing from her mind. She unties the horse and gets up on the mare's back. She then turns her around to follow the witcher.</p><p> </p><p>She notes that they are going east and not north but she follows him anyway, the man knows something about Jaskier and maybe she can get him to help her. She urges Roach to catch up to the witcher who just looks pointedly at the mare and raises his eyebrows at her when she overtakes him. She falls back so that they are side by side.</p><p> </p><p>"I didn't steal her. She was given to me,” Ciri explains defensively, “I'm taking care of her for her owner, for if... for when he comes back."</p><p> </p><p>The witcher shrugs as if he's not interested, but he doesn't ride away in a hurry either, so she counts it as a win. She then starts to badger him about Jaskier but the man stays stubbornly silent. She narrows her eyes and vows to break him, she'll make him speak sooner or later.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p><span> The witcher doesn't stop when night falls and Ciri wonders if she should turn back. After all, she's following a complete stanger in the dark. A stranger that won't talk to her. But he didn't hurt her either, so maybe it's fine. </span>She's getting hungry and thinking longingly about a soft bed when the witcher gets off the path they are following and heads into the forest. Ciri decides to follow him anyway.</p><p> </p><p>He finally dismounts next to a stream and Ciri feels safe enough to get off Roach when her companion starts to build a fire. She drinks large gulps of water, gets the only remaining saddlebag off Roach and flops down on the ground. When the fire is burning, the witcher turns to his horse and starts to take care of him. He looks back at her and asks her : </p><p> </p><p>“You're not going to take her saddle and briddle off ? Brush her ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know how,” she murmurs and blushes because Roach had to have had a horrible week and Ciri is just realizing it now.</p><p> </p><p>The man frowns at her, finishes to take care of his horse and then comes over to her. He motions for her to get up, which she does with a sigh, and shows her how to take care of Roach correctly. She dutifully mimics his actions and listens to him. When they are done and Roach is grazing nearby, Ciri flops down on Geralt's bedroll next to the fire and holds her knees to her chest. She's hungry but her rations are all gone.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher rolls his eyes at her when her stomach grumbles for the fourth time in a few minutes and hands her a piece of hard cheese and a slice of bread. Her thanks are heartfelt.</p><p> </p><p>“What's your name ?”, she asks the witcher once they've finished eating.</p><p> </p><p>“Ivo,” he growls. </p><p> </p><p>“I'm Fiona.”</p><p> </p><p>“Is that the truth or a lie ?”</p><p> </p><p>She doesn't answer him because it's a little bit of both and she doesn't know how to convey that. </p><p> </p><p>“What do you know about Jaskier ?”, she asks instead.</p><p> </p><p>“You're just as stubborn as him, you sure you're not related ?”</p><p> </p><p>She refuses to answer, crosses her arms and glares at him. He holds her gaze easily and she starts to fidget before looking down at the ground when she becomes uncomfortable. The witcher lets out a dry laugh.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, sweet Melitele, you really are related, aren't you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“We're not.”</p><p> </p><p>“Same as you're not from Cintra, right ?”</p><p> </p><p>She keeps her eyes on the ground and doesn't look at him, he can imagine everything he wants, it'll always be better than him knowing she's Cintra's princess. The witcher finally lets out a sigh.</p><p> </p><p>“And you already met a witcher, right ?”, he continues to extrapolate, “That's why you came running at me.”</p><p> </p><p>“A witcher helped me after Cintra,” she decides to share to make the story he is building seem more truthful, “He gave me the horse and told me that he'd catch up to me. Said that Jaskier was in Vizima.”</p><p> </p><p>“So a witcher saves you from Cintra and decides to help you reach Jaskier. The damn bard is totally family, right ? Would explain why you just came up to me, same stupidly brave blood running in your veins.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri blushes and fidgets, she's a bit embarrassed to be compared to a man she never met but the witcher is filling the blanks of her story without approaching the truth and that is all that matters.</p><p> </p><p>“How old are you ? Nine ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm eleven !”, she exclaims affronted.</p><p> </p><p>“So propably too young to be a sister. You're his daughter ? Bastard ?”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri shrugs.</p><p> </p><p>“There's no shame in it, you're not responsible for it. And I'm sure that Jaskier will take care of you, once you find him. He doesn't seem to be the type to abandon family in a time of need.”</p><p> </p><p>“You know him well ?”, she asks him because she's curious.</p><p> </p><p>“I know enough,” the witcher shrugs, “We met three times over the years. He happened on me twice and I spooked him once, he was pissing and I made him he wet his boots !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher laughs and Ciri rolls her eyes because that's just disgusting. Jaskier seems to be an acquaintance to the witcher though and not a good friend like he probably is to Geralt.</p><p> </p><p>“Will you take me to him ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I'll try.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why ?”, she asks suspiciously.</p><p> </p><p>“Listen kid, I'm not doing it for you but your father, he sort of got adopted by us, witchers. He tries to increase our good reputation and it's not everyday you meet someone like that. So I'll bring you to him because I sort of owe him. You obey me and everything will be fine. Okay ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I... understand. I'll try to be on my best behaviour.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good. Who told you that he was in Vizima and when was it ?”</p><p> </p><p>“It was the previous witcher, he told me a week ago to head north.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher hums, “That's good, the information is still fresh. We still have a long journey ahead of us so I advise you to go to bed. We leave at dawn. And before that, I'll show you how to harness your horse.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods at him, goes to the stream to drink and fill her waterskin and goes in the forest to relieve herself. The witcher is watching her attentively when she comes back and she lies down on her bedroll with a sigh. She curls up on herself and hopes that she won't have nightmares.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you,” she whispers in the night just before nodding off.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It takes Geralt three days to take care of all of their pursuers. He has to plan three ambushes and to pursue the last mercenaries who try to flee. He's not taking any chances and is thorough. He searches the bodies of the men he kills and confirms that some of them are Nilfgaardians soldiers, the others are mercenaries very probably paid to assist them in their hunt for Ciri.</p><p> </p><p>After three busy days, he takes a fourth one to rest a little and starts heading north on the fifth. He hopes to find Ciri soon and then to continue their journey north, hopefully safely. When he arrives at an inn six days later, so ten days after he last saw his daughter, he hears about a kid, whose description matches Ciri perfectly, absconding with a witcher. The first tinglings of unease start to appear.</p><p> </p><p>He has to threaten a few villagers, and even breaks one of the barkeep's fingers, before he learns that the kid ran to the witcher and didn't let him go. They then tell him that both of them headed out of the village and went east. <em>What the fuck ?</em> Thinks Geralt. Why didn't Ciri continue north ? Does she know this witcher ?</p><p> </p><p>He takes the time to eat two meals in a row and drinks some ale before he goes out of the village at a run, he's going east. He can't spot any prints from the people he is looking for and hopes that he can catch up to them before they decide to head another way.</p><p> </p><p>He's a little bit worried because Ciri is alone with an unfamiliar witcher, and he doesn't know how the man might react to the fact that she is his daughter. He's pretty sure that the witcher isn't Vesemir, he doesn't travel this far south, or Eskel, no facial scars were mentionned, or Lambert, no curse words were mentionned. But he doesn't know the others enough to be able to deduce which one she met. And he still doesn't understand what possessed her to share a ride with a witcher !</p><p> </p><p>He hopes she found Coën. Lambert always said that Coën was nice and reasonable, both good qualities to have to take care of a child. When he doesn't spot any traces of them on the road after several days of travel, the unease sets in and his stomach tightens. He goes to a village to see if someone spotted Ciri and her companion in the last few days, but the last witcher they had seen had crossed through the settlement a year ago.</p><p> </p><p>His stomach drops and he might panic a little when he realizes that they didn't pass through here. He runs back the way he came twice as fast as before. He tires himself out looking for his daughter and when he can finally admit that he lost her trace, he decides to head north and to see if he can't catch up to her in Vizima.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>After Auckes cruelly abandons him, Jaskier heads east for two more days before going north to join Rinde. He then plans to catch a convoy bound for Oxenfurt. He heard that the president of the university died last year, and maybe he'll be welcomed back with open arms. And on the way, he'll try to stop at some taverns and inns to garner some money. His path decided, Jaskier sets out with a determined step.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And Ciri's journey is starting !</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Abandonment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Ciri spends a month following Ivo around and feels like she is learning new things everyday. He teaches her to take care of Roach, and then his own unnamed mount, to watch out for angry or dangerous people and to track down butchers and herborists in villages.</p><p> </p><p>He first sends her into town, to buy some dried meat, on the third day of their travel together and she must confess that it takes a little bit of convincing for her to leave Roach with Ivo. She isn't sure that the witcher won't just steal the horse and leave without her.</p><p> </p><p>He compromises and lets her go into town with his full purse, with some death threats were she to lose it, and one of his boots. Okay, she can admit that she didn't think her demand through and gets a few puzzled looks thrown her way when she arrives in the village carrying a single boot, clearly too big for her.</p><p> </p><p>She still manages to obtain dried meat - and even some dried fish ! - for what she thinks is a fair price. She widens her eyes, huddles in her cloak and even sheds a few tears, just like Ivo told her to do. She tells the butcher that the boot is the only thing her father left her before he died and the man finally takes pity on her and lowers his prices. She then goes to the herborist and gets some plants that the witcher asked for and a tea for her for a decent prize too.</p><p> </p><p>She is very proud of herself and when she goes back, she gives Ivo his lightened purse and his boot back and stores their new supplies equally between their saddlebags. He doesn't praise her but he pats her head carefully. She comes to understand over their journey that it is his way of complimenting her and acknowledging her actions.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri still gets nightmares and Ivo doesn't wake her up like Geralt did. He usually lets her deal with them on her own. It is when she sits shivering next to the fire, in the middle of the night after waking up with a scream, that she longs for Geralt the most. He would wake her up and let her snuggle against his chest for comfort. She wonders where he is and if he is missing her too.</p><p> </p><p><span> Their new routine is disturbed in the middle of the fourth week. Ivo wakes her up before dawn, they pack up their camp, eat and drink a little and ready the horses. By the time dawn arrives, they are on their way. </span>They ride all through the morning, stop quickly at midday to collect some edible plants and to eat. Usually they would continue to ride until late in the afternoon, and if Ivo felt like it, he would go hunting or fishing.</p><p> </p><p>But today Ivo stops her in the middle of the afternoon and they get away from the road, cross some meadows and happen upon a camping spot under a big oak tree. A horse is tied to the lowest branch of the tree and is grazing. He watches them approaching and Ivo goes to pet him as soon as he dismounts. A fire pit is prepared and a pile of wood sits neatly next to it.</p><p> </p><p>“We're stopping here for today,” Ivo announces then, “Take care of our horses and see if you can find some plants that we could eat tonight.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why are we stopping here ? Isn't it dangerous ? What if the person whom this camp belongs to doesn't want to see us ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Don't worry. I'm going hunting,” he says and pats her head before going away.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri shakes her head, looks suspiciously around before turning back towards the horses. When they are settled, she goes meandering in the meadows and looks for the plants the witcher pointed to her these past weeks. </p><p> </p><p>She finds some thyme and some nettle and goes back with her treasure. When she arrives back at the camp, she spots another figure next to the fire, with some drying laundry at his side, and it isn't Ivo. She creeps slowly towards the camp and the man nods at her in greeting. She spots the usual witcher yellow eyes on his face and sees two long swords propped up next to him.</p><p> </p><p>“That your horse, kid ?”, he calls at her when she stops at the edge of camp.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah”, she answers warily.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you're with Ivo then. You're his child surprise ?”</p><p> </p><p>“No !”, Ciri exclaims indignantly because Geralt is her father surprise and she wants no one else.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, sorry,” the witcher apologizes with raised hands, “You can come closer, you know. I'm Heyn, by the way.”</p><p> </p><p>“Fiona,” she answers the unspoken question, “Ivo went hunting.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher nods and she comes closer. She hands him the plants and he thanks her with a smile. She then retreats to Roach and sits down beside the mare. The witcher takes a small pot out of one of his bags and empties his waterskin in it.</p><p> </p><p>He then proceeds to prepare a soup with her nettle and she looks forward to it. Geralt and Ivo don't carry pots around and she has had enough of burnt meat, raw plants and jerky. A soup will be welcome. By the time the pot is fuming, Ivo comes back with three rabbits already skinned and speared on sticks.</p><p> </p><p>“Ivo,” the other witcher greets him while the rabbits are put over the fire, and Ciri lets out a relieved sigh because they know each other.</p><p> </p><p>“Heyn,” he replies.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing gallivating with a kid across the countryside ?”</p><p> </p><p>“She's from Cintra...”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not !”, denies Ciri.</p><p> </p><p>“... and she stumbled upon me. She's the damn bard's bastard daughter.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri doesn't bother denying this affirmation and just broods, she hopes she looks as good as Geralt when he does it.</p><p> </p><p>“Jaskier's ? Really ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Apparently,” Ivo continues, “I'm bringing her back to her father. Last I heard he was in Vizima.”</p><p> </p><p>“You sure ? I heard that he wanted to visit Rivia this year.”</p><p> </p><p>“Intel is a month old, should still be somewhat accurate.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you say so,” Heyn frowns at him.</p><p> </p><p>He then busies himself with the soup and lends Ciri his own bowl because she doesn't possess one of her own. She blows on the soup and drinks it eagerly. She finds it really good and when she finishes her share, she gives the cup reluctantly to Ivo who shares it again with Heyn next. Spotting her hopeful face, the witchers let Ciri finish the soup after she has eaten her rabbit.</p><p> </p><p>The dirty dishes are discarded to be washed later and the two witchers then share some news about people she doesn't know. She gets her bedroll out, brings it next to the fire and goes to sleep with the murmurs of her two companions' voices ringing softly in her ears.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>When Ciri wakes up the next morning, the sun is already up and she scrambles up because she's late. She puts her bedroll away, drinks a sip of water, douses the fire with the rest of her waterskin and prepares Roach for the day. When she turns to look for Ivo's horse, she realizes that he isn't here and neither is the witcher. She spots Heyn's stallion though.</p><p> </p><p>“Ivo ? Ivo ? Where are you ? It's not funny !”</p><p> </p><p>When no answer is forthcoming, she walks left and right and looks for her companion but doesn't spot him. She then tries to climb the oak tree but falls down quickly and scrapes her hands. It's not really painful, it stings, but combined with the emotional hurt of being abandonned by the man who took her in, she starts to cry.</p><p> </p><p>Heyn finds her huddled under the tree crying her eyes out and looks around him in complete befuddlement. Ciri sees him put his now clean dishes away before he approaches her slowly.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing here ?”, he asks her slowly.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri just sniffles.</p><p> </p><p>“Why didn't you leave with Ivo ? I thought you were going north together ?”</p><p> </p><p>“He left,” Ciri whispers and then she gets angry, gets up and screams, “He frigging left me. Just abandonned me. Didn't even say goodbye ! Didn't tell me. I HATE him !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher just takes a seat on the ground and watches her stomping around angrily. He has a pitying expression stuck on his face and Ciri snarls at him when she sees it. He just raises his arms in a placating gesture and Ciri starts to cry again. Heyn comes closer and puts his hands on her shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>“Don't worry,” he tells her, “The bastard may have left you but you're not alone. I'll take you up north. We'll go find your father together, right ?”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri offers him a wobbly smile and can't resist the impulse to hug him. At least she's not alone and she trusts Heyn, somewhat. Ivo left her with him after all, and he may be a complete idiot who didn't warn her that he was leaving, but he never endangered her when they were travelling together.</p><p> </p><p>So she decides to give this witcher a chance and trusts Ivo's decision. She just swears to herself not to grow attached. She doesn't want it to hurt this bad again when the man will finally give her up, whether to Jaskier or to someone else.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Ciri the nightmare</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Travelling with Heyn turns out to be completely different than travelling with Ivo. Mostly because Ciri is being a little shit and she perfectly knows it. She reasons that if she's enough of a nightmare, the witcher won't get attached to her and in return she won't get attached to him.</p><p> </p><p>She spends the first week scowling at Heyn, refusing to do anything he asks of her and trying to steal his boots. After she walked in on him taking a shit in the forest by accident, she starts to do it on purpose too, because it really angers Heyn. She smiles nastily at him every time he scrambles up from his crouched position and laces his pants in a hurry.</p><p> </p><p>On the evening of the third day, she stomps around their camp and manages to douse the fire twice <em>by accident. </em>In retaliation Heyn eats all the nettle soup he prepared and Ciri goes to bed hungry. The next day she gets them thrown out of a tavern by having a childish tantrum, and she really thinks that the witcher will hit her to try to discipline her.</p><p> </p><p>She cringes away from him when he marches up to her with a frightening scowl on his face and fully expects to be slapped or beaten for the first time in her life. Heyn spots her reaction and only takes her arm in his hand firmly and drags her outside to the horses. They don't eat and Ciri is somewhat polite in the evening so that she gets some rabbit and two slices of stale bread for dinner.</p><p> </p><p>It takes her a week to calm somewhat down. Heyn takes her to an inn and they are sharing a room. The witcher is lounging in the bath that Ciri refused, despite the fact that she literally reeks, when she decides from her place on her bedroll on the floor that being angry all the time is too exhausting.</p><p> </p><p>After her new resolution, she becomes easier to live with. She stops dropping in on Heyn when he goes away to relieve himself, she starts bathing again and helps the witcher to prepare dinner. She's still mostly sulking all day and her companion doesn't really warm up to her, which she can admit is mainly her fault.</p><p> </p><p>Heyn still stays polite with her and stops punishing her by denying her dinner. She's glad to have a full belly every night again and starts helping him around the camp. She does the dishes, collects plants and learns how to do her laundry in the wilderness,. To her frustration, it involves poor soap and a copious amount of scrubbing.</p><p> </p><p>Heyn teaches her how to build and light a fire too and even buys her a flint stone that he gifts her with a stern frown on the second week of their travel. She shares a little bit of her tea with him that night. After a few weeks of travel with Heyn, she's glad to note that she is mostly autonomous when it comes to making or to packing away their camp.</p><p> </p><p>After almost three weeks together, Heyn is still reserved but he answers her rare questions readily enough and Ciri is sulking less and less. She still misses Geralt fiercely, and prays often for him to find her soon, but she's mostly satisfied with her life. The witcher, while not friendly, keeps her safe and she's going north, away from Nilfgaard and from war.</p><p> </p><p>She knows that Heyn and her won't ever be close and totally understands that it is her fault. He still seems afraid of setting her off and she deduces that he doesn't trust her from the way he tracks her actions throughout the day.</p><p> </p><p>So it doesn't come as a surprise, when almost a month later near Maribor, Heyn manages to transfer her custody to another witcher when they cross path with him. The new witcher doesn't look thrilled but he agrees to take her in anyway when he hears that she is Jaskier's daughter.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri and Heyn come across Auckes at an inn that is frequently visited by witchers in the middle of Temeria. Heyn explains to her that for five generations, a member of the family had to be saved from a monster by a witcher. The family never forgot their saviours and witchers are always welcome there. The inn is located in a big village, has some potted plants on the windowsills and sports a weathered sign that reads <em>At Vesemir's</em>.</p><p> </p><p>They enter the inn and the barkeep immediatly comes by to greet the witcher warmly, he looks weirdly at Ciri but doesn't ask about her presence. He promises them a hot meal and a room for the night and then points towards the back of the inn where Ciri spots another witcher. He raises his glass to greet them and Heyn steers her towards him after asking for two meals.</p><p> </p><p>“Viper,” he greets the unfamiliar witcher.</p><p> </p><p>“Bear,” answers the man.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri is confused and looks at them trying to determine why they would call themselves with animals' names. Heyn points to his medaillon and Ciri's eyes go wide in understanding. She's manhandled on a chair and growls at Heyn, she sits down when he lets her go.</p><p> </p><p>“Good to see you still alive,” Heyn starts, “Anything interesting happening in the neighbourhood ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not anymore,” snorts the unfamiliar witcher, “Just came back from saving the sixth generation of the family. Kid was snatched up by a werewolf, took me a few hours to track him down and bring him back.”</p><p> </p><p>“Damn,” Heyn whistles, “Did we ever investigate this family for a curse or something ?”</p><p> </p><p>“N<span>ot to my knowledge. Maybe we should look into it one of these days. Speaking of kids, </span> who's this feral one ?”</p><p> </p><p>Heyn pinches the bridge of his nose and Ciri smiles at the new witcher.</p><p> </p><p>“That is our new pain in the ass, Fiona, Jaskier's daughter. Kid meet Auckes.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher splutters and looks at her intently. Ciri squirms on her chair and is relieved when their meal arrive so that she can concentrate on something else than Auckes' stare.</p><p> </p><p>“She doesn't look like him,” is his conclusion and Ciri sticks out her tongue at him because she's right here, thank you very much, and she doesn't like to be ignored.</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe,” concedes Heyn, “But she's just as annoying as him. I'm taking her to her father in Vizima.”</p><p> </p><p>“He's not in Vizima anymore. I had to help him run away from the town almost two months ago.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you've got to be kidding me,” groans Heyn and drops his head on the table, “Do you know where he went ?”</p><p> </p><p>“He was headed east last I saw him. Maybe Kaedwen or Aedirn ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck, I hate him. Why are we subjecting ourselves to this willingly again ? We should have killed him when we had the chance !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri gasps at that. She understands that witchers can be dangerous, it's just the first time that she hears one of them speaking about murdering someone who didn't do anything wrong, and she has trouble matching this concept with the gruff but sort of kind men who took her in.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm kidding, kid, I'm kidding. Don't start to cry now !”</p><p> </p><p>Auckes snorts at that and Heyn glares at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Don't laugh, she's a nightmare !”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, you're the nighmare ! I didn't ask to be dumped with you !”, Ciri retorts hotly.</p><p> </p><p>“And I didn't ask to be saddled with you either, yet here we are, princess !”</p><p> </p><p>The last word, even though sneered in mockery, makes her angry because it's her secret and he can't know about it if she wants to be safe.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not a princess,” she screams in his face before getting up and storming out. But before she can reach the door, she hears Heyn yell at her :</p><p> </p><p>“Don't break the damn glass !”</p><p> </p><p>She then notices that she's still clutching the tankard of heavily watered down ale that the barkeep brought to her and just to be contrary, she smashes the still mostly full glass on the floor. She hears Heyn and the barkeep roar at her and she runs out of the inn.</p><p> </p><p>She stops running when she reaches the edge of the village and finally notices that no witcher followed her out and that she's crying, again. She scrubs furiously at her cheeks and doubles back towards the inn. She wonders if she should go back in, but decides to go visit Roach instead.</p><p> </p><p>The mare is stabled and munching happily on some oats next to Heyn's stallion. She borrows a brush, goes to her and starts to pamper the mare. Roach lets her work and when she begins to become agitated, Ciri starts anew with Heyn's mount. When she's satisfied, she plops down on some clean hay next to Roach and starts to talk to her. She saw Geralt do it a few times and maybe it'll make her feel better.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not a princess,” she starts, “I can't be a princess. And I'm not from Cintra either. Heyn doesn't know what he is talking about.”</p><p> </p><p>Roach neighs in what Ciri likes to think is agreement and she already feels a little bit better.</p><p> </p><p>“And I hate him. He's mean and I wanted to stay with Ivo. Better yet, I wanted to stay with Geralt. He was nice. But he'll come back, you'll see, Roach, he'll come back to us.”</p><p> </p><p>She pats the mare's leg from her spot on the floor and ponders about what to tell her next.</p><p> </p><p>“Where do you think Jaskier went ? I hope he went somewhere nice, with moutains in the background maybe. I'd like to see real big mountains someday and climb some too. It must be beautiful to be all the way up there and to be able to gaze at everything below you. I'd feel so tall too !”</p><p> </p><p>She hears a snort coming from the entrance of the stables and Heyn appears next to Roach a few seconds later.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing here ?”, she asks him aggressively.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm looking for you actually. You'll be staying with Auckes from now on, he agreed to take you to your father. I'm leaving for Kerack in the morning and you and Auckes are going to Ellander. With luck you'll find Jaskier there.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri narrows her eyes at him and gets up to confront him.</p><p> </p><p>“What if I want to stay with you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Tough,” Heyn answers with a mocking smile, “And wasn't it just yesterday that you were screaming at me to get lost ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Auckes didn't seem the type to want to be <em>saddled</em> with me.”</p><p> </p><p>Heyn winces when he hears his words in her mouth but explains to her how he convinced him to taker her on anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“He's the last to have seen your father and we're not good with each other, it seemed logical for him to go with you from now on.”</p><p> </p><p>“Really ?”, Ciri asks dubiously.</p><p> </p><p>“And he lost at gwent,” he adds sheepishly.</p><p> </p><p>“You sold me over a game of gwent ?”, roars Ciri at him and she approaches him to stomp over his feet and starts to pummel his chest with her fists.</p><p> </p><p>Heyn catches her and traps her against his chest so that she can't hurt him or herself. He rolls his eyes at her and she clearly hears the long-suffering sigh he lets out before he starts speaking.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, stop beaing dramatic, Fiona, I didn't sell you... I just transfered your custody. You're not a slave. And Auckes won't abuse you, you'll just continue your journey with him until you find your father or he gives you up to another witcher.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what if I don't want to go with him ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm leaving tomorrow for Kerack and Auckes goes north, you're free to come with me but I won't alter my plans for you.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri frowns and stomps one last time on one of Heyn's feet to really convey her displeasure. The witcher only rolls his eyes at her and drags her back to the inn with a firm grip on her arm. He makes her apologize to the owner for destroying his glass and volunteers her help to do the dishes in the evening without asking her. Ciri pouts and tries to get out of the engagement but Heyn is relentless and she admits that it is a lost cause when Auckes backs him up.</p><p> </p><p>So Ciri spends her evening washing dirty dishes under the owner's niece's supervision and she only gets to eat when the kitchen is tidy and everything is as clean as demanded by the head of the family. She's then offered a bowl of stew and a small pastry that brings tears to her eyes because it's the first one she eats since... since she can't remember. She relishes it and licks her fingers hungrily under the watchful and sad gazes of her hosts.</p><p> </p><p>When she's finally sated, a woman takes her up the stairs and she is shown into a room. She expects to see Heyn lounging on the bed or meditating on the floor but is surprised to find Auckes sharpening his swords next to a candle.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry, I was looking for Heyn. I'll leave”, she apologizes to him and starts to back off the room.</p><p> </p><p>“Get in, girl,” he tells her abruptly, “We're sharing from now on.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri gingerly steps into the room, closes and bars the door behind her and spots the saddlebag containing her belongings sitting in a corner. She gives the witcher a wide berth and gets one of Geralt's old shirt out of the bag to sleep in.</p><p> </p><p>“Bath water might still be lukewarm if you're lucky,” Auckes says and points at a tub placed behind a wooden screen, “Enjoy it while you can, we don't know when we'll be able to have another one.”</p><p> </p><p>“Thanks.”</p><p> </p><p>She prepares her bedroll, and notes absently that she'll need to wash it soon, goes behind the screen, disrobes and enters the tub. The water is cold and she scrubs herself quickly with a rough soap probably provided by theirs hosts.</p><p> </p><p>She then dresses in Geralt's shirt, that covers her all the way down to her knees, and goes to her bedroll where she curls up to sleep. She hears the witcher blowing the candle and getting into the bed.</p><p> </p><p>“I'll wake you up at dawn tomorrow so that you can see Heyn off,” Auckes' voice cuts through the silence.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you,” Ciri whispers back, “Good night.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher doesn't answer her and she curls up tight. Sleep comes quickly and she's so exhausted that she doesn't have nightmares, or at least she doesn't remember them come morning.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Jaskier's stay in Oxenfurt is brief. There is indeed a new president at the university and he welcomes him cheerfully enough. Jaskier is invited to share his table on his first evening back but when he goes to his office the day after, he finds it closed.</p><p> </p><p>From what he gathers from his secretary, the man clearly remembers the affair that lead to Jaskier's disgrace in the first place, and seeing as he doesn't want him to approach his wife, he now plans to completely ignore him.</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier tries to catch him for two more days but the new president must have a degree in evasion tactics because the bard just can't corner him. After two days spent patrolling the university's corridors, a few city guards, hired by the faculty, nicely escort him out of the establishment's grounds and, to be thorough, they even show him out of the city.</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier grumbles all the way and bemoans the president's lack of politeness but follows his escort without causing trouble. He knows how these things go and he doesn't want to be roughed up if he can avoid it.</p><p> </p><p>He then heads to Novigrad to visit some old acquaintances. After a misunderstanding with an irrate husband-to-be, Jaskier decides to seek out a trustworthy captain and buys himself a spot on a ship bound for Pont Vanis. Spending his summer traipsing around Kovir's countryside seems like a splendid idea, he muses.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Geralt is three days into Temeria when he crosses path with an unfamiliar bear witcher. The Bear is heading east and Geralt is going north at a run.</p><p> </p><p>He sees the other witcher nod at him in passing and thinks that the man tries to stop him in his course but Geralt just sidesteps his horse, without breaking his sprint, and continues on his way north. He's on a mission. He's in a hurry. And he needs to be in Vizima sometime like yesterday.</p><p> </p><p>What could a Bear possibly have to say to him of any importance anyway ? He was coming from the west and heading east, it was extremely unliquely that he saw Ciri, so Geralt doesn't bother to stop. He keeps running and wonders if he can sustain this pace for a week without stopping. Probably not, he muses, he'll drop dead from exhaustion long before that.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And Ciri's journey continues.<br/>Hope you enjoy :p</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The fun Viper</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Auckes is nice, Ciri finds out. She's being relatively agreeable too and they make good progress in their journey. The Viper smiles at her and even laughs a few times when she does something really stupid, like a very bad imitation of Heyn. He races with her, lets her win most of the time and buys a pot three days after they meet, because Ciri complains about the lack of soup during their travel.</p><p> </p><p>The only problem she sees is that the man has no sense of hygiene. Ciri has to force him to bathe on the road and to literally push him into the streams they come across. And she knows that she smells just as bad as him, and she had a moment with Heyn when she refused to wash just to be contrary, but it passed and she really likes to feel and to smell clean. She tries to share her joy with Auckes when they happen upon a stream but it apparently doesn't bother him that he reeks.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri finally manages to obtain that Auckes bathes at least twice a week and she's rather proud of her bargaining skills. She still has to navigate another bump on the road and that is the fact that the witcher doesn't do soap, unless it is offered by inns. And then it's shitty soap and they don't even stop at inns that often. She combs his bags on the second week of their travel and doesn't find any soap. When she asks him about it, he just looks blankly at her.</p><p> </p><p>“You didn't find any because I don't own any soap. It's a waste of space.”</p><p> </p><p>“It's not a waste of space,” Ciri splutters, “How do you wash yourself then ? Or your clothes ?”</p><p> </p><p>“With clear water, on the road. And I use the inns' soaps when I can. It's enough.”</p><p> </p><p>“No !”, Ciri exclaims, “That's not enough. How do you even get the stains out of your clothes ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't,” Auckes answers puzzled, “I don't see why I should spend hours scrubbing a shirt that is bound to end up dirty again a few days later. I just dump everything in the river and let the water do its job.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri is appalled by this behaviour. She starts to pester the witcher about soap as soon as she hears about the lack of it in the vicinity of Auckes. She's apparently so annoying about it that the witcher promises her to acquire some at the next town.</p><p> </p><p>It takes them a week and a half to happen upon a decently sized town that has a market. They browse the stalls quickly and Auckes splutters when he sees the soaps' prices. Ciri pats his arm consolingly and points at a lavender scented one excitedly.</p><p> </p><p>The problem is that Auckes refuses to pay for it. He agrees to buy some of the less expensive ones but Ciri crosses her arms and stomps her foot to show her disagreement.</p><p> </p><p>They quickly abandon the stall, when it becomes clear that none of them is going to back down, and Auckes drags her into a dark alley. He towers over her with a scowl on his face and explains that he doesn't have the coin to spare to buy her expensive luxuries.</p><p> </p><p>“They're not luxuries, stupid,” she explains, “Soap is a basic necessity. I need it and you really need it too.”</p><p> </p><p>Auckes hums and scrubs a hand over his face.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not paying for it,” he decides finally.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri prepares herself to rant at him until he reconsiders but he stops her with a raised hand.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not paying for it but I'm not opposed to steal some of the damn soap if it stops you from being annoying.”</p><p> </p><p>“Stealing is bad,” Ciri says quietly because that was what she was told all her life.</p><p> </p><p>“I don't care,” Auckes shrugs, “You decide how bad you want the damn soap.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri wonders if she could pay the damn soap herself but she knows that it would be a frivolous purchase with Geralt's meagre savings. She might need the money for something more important later. But she also really want the soap, she longs to do some laundry and her bedroll is really overdue a good scrubbing.</p><p> </p><p>“Fine,” she sighs, “Fine. How do we do it ?”</p><p> </p><p>“You are going to provide a distraction,” Auckes smirks at her, “I'm doing the actual stealing. I just need everyone distracted for a few seconds.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what do I do ?”</p><p> </p><p>“You wait for me to be next to the stall and then you scream as loud as you can. You can do that right ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes,” Ciri nods decisively, “Should I do something else too ? Pretend to be hurt ?”</p><p> </p><p>“If you can make it believable. And then we hightail it out of the town. Understood ?”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods at him and watches him go back to the market. She waits for Auckes to reach the soap merchant's stall and heads into the market too. She goes past the witcher and bumps into a burly man three stalls over her companion. She lets go of Roach's reins and drops dramatically to the ground with a loud cry.</p><p> </p><p>The woman on the arm of the man she bumped into immediately turns to her, asks her if she is alright and helps her get back up. Ciri makes a show of hopping on only one foot and lets a few fake tears fall from her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>The man she disturbed gives her a quick once over and apparently finds her lacking because he sneers at her, doesn't offer an apology and tugs the woman away from her.</p><p> </p><p>Nobody else comes to her help and she refuses to look behind her at Auckes, she doesn't wan to give him away. She leans on Roach and gets back up in the saddle, all the while trying to appear hurt, and heads for the edge of the town. Auckes catches up to her a few seconds later and they race out of town.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher lets her win and they slow their pace down after a few minutes. Ciri checks on Roach but the mare isn't winded and they continue on their way. Auckes makes them ride well into the evening and they only stop when Ciri can't see the road ahead of her anymore.</p><p> </p><p>They set up camp and Ciri takes care of the horses before getting their dried meat and fruits out and indulging in a small dinner.</p><p> </p><p>“So you got the soap ?”, Ciri asks the witcher after they finish their meal and she can't contain her excitement anymore.</p><p> </p><p>Auckes smirks at her and gets four little packages out of one of his trousers' pockets. He throws them at her and Ciri scrambles to catch them. She brings them closer to the fire and squeals when she sees the lavender soap that she so wanted.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you ! Thank you !”, she says excitedly and gets up to hug the Viper.</p><p> </p><p>He pats her back awkwardly and Ciri lets him go when he starts to fidget. She sits down next to him and sniffs the soaps. She finds two lavender, a cedar and a honeysuckle one.</p><p> </p><p>“It's too bad there isn't a steam nearby. I so need a wash !”, Ciri complains.</p><p> </p><p>“We'll stop a bit earlier than usual tomorrow and find one,” Auckes announces. “I have something else for you. Here you can have half of the purse.”</p><p> </p><p>And the witcher drops a hefty purse in her lap. Ciri picks it up, weighs it and asks slowly :</p><p> </p><p>“How did you get that ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I pickpocketed the man you bumped into on the way out of the market. It was only fair, he didn't even stop to try to see if you were fine.”</p><p> </p><p>“The woman did,” Ciri points out sensibly.</p><p> </p><p>“But the woman didn't do anything to you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Thanks I guess. Here, you can keep the honeysuckle soap in exchange. I'm sure that you'll need it.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri then upturns the purse on her lap and divides the contents equally in the light of the fire. She keeps her share in her lap and gives the rest, with the merchant's purse, to Auckes, who accepts it with a nod.</p><p> </p><p>“Can you teach me how to pickpocket people too ?”, she asks after a few seconds of silence.</p><p> </p><p>“Why ?”, Auckes grunts at her.</p><p> </p><p>“Because it's useful... and seems like a fun skill to have,” Ciri shrugs.</p><p> </p><p>“Fine.”</p><p> </p><p>She smiles at the witcher, collects her coins and soaps, squeezes Auckes' shoulder as she gets up and heads for Roach. She crams the money in Geralt's purse and wraps the soaps carefully in one of her suprise father's old shirt before storing everything in the saddlebag. She then gets her bedroll out, pets Roach one last time and comes back to the fire. She falls asleep with a smile on her face.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Auckes holds his promise and, the next day, they stop early in the afternoon next to a stream. Ciri takes care of the horses and sets up the camp while the witcher goes hunting. She takes advantage of his absence to take her clothes off and to dress in one of Geralt's oversized shirt so that she can wash her own. Auckes comes back without a catch but with some nettle that they plan to cook into a soup.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher puts the plants into his cooking pot and when he leaves for the stream to collect water, Ciri forces him to take his clothes and his bedroll with him. They start by filling the pot and their waterskins and then Ciri gets the soap out. Auckes tries to leave when he sees it but she holds on to his trousers and doesn't let go until he sits down next to her.</p><p> </p><p>She then puts one bar of lavender soap in his hands and watches him intently until he starts scrubbing. Ciri smiles at him and starts on her own clothes, or well mostly Geralt's, because she still doesn't own anything more than a shirt, a pair of boots and a skirt. She really needs to invest in some new clothing, she muses.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri washes her own clothes first and then the two shirts of Geralt's that she wears at night. She then spreads them out behind her to start drying and dumps the bedroll in the water. She scrubs at it fiercely and then wrings it thoroughly. She rolls her eyes when she sees that, at this point, Auckes still hasn't finished with his three shirts and is glaring at them fiercely.</p><p> </p><p>“They won't wash themselves faster if you glare at them, you know,” she comments with a smile.</p><p> </p><p>She takes pity on him and takes care of his bedroll too and then his pair of trousers while he finishes his shirts.</p><p> </p><p>“See, that wasn't so bad now, was it ?”, she smiles at him as they relocate their wet clothes next to their fire. With luck everything will be dry in the morning.</p><p> </p><p>Auckes doesn't answer her and hands her a belt next. He asks her to put it on and then attaches a purse to it. He demonstrates his pickpocketing skills several times under Ciri's rapt attention. She takes note of where he places his hands, of his gentleness, of the distractions he causes and of course his calm.</p><p> </p><p>“You got everything ?”, he asks her after his eighth demonstration.</p><p> </p><p>“I think so,” Ciri says with a frown on her face.</p><p> </p><p>Auckes then takes the belt back, secures it around his own waist and motions for her to try to rob him. Her first attempts are clumsy. She tugs too hard on the purse, she pulls on the belt or she disturbs the witcher. She grimaces after another failed attempt.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, no”, she whines when Auckes traps her wrist in his hand again, “When will I be as skilled as you ? You make it seem so easy !”</p><p> </p><p>“It'll take time. You don't become a professional pickpocket in a matter of hours”, he laughs at her. “We'll practice everyday and then we'll move on stealing things from pockets or doublets. You'll see, it's another can of worms altogether !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri slumps in defeat because she thought that she could master this skill in a matter of minutes and she just now realizes that it may take her days, weeks or maybe months. Auckes spurs her on and she continues to try to steal his purse while he prepares dinner. Ciri goes to bed disappointed but with a full stomach and sleeps peacefully.</p><p> </p><p>The next day Auckes ties her purse to Roach's reins and has her practice untying knots one-handed and on horse back. When they stop at midday, she's frustrated and angry because she can't seem to work out how to do it, and she feels stupid and clumsy. So when Auckes tells her to try to rob him again, her attempts are awkward and she becomes even more disappointed.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher doesn't let her slack off though and encourages her endlessly. It takes her a week to note an improvement in her technique and by then she can untie Auckes' purse from his belt without a hitch. She still has a little bit of trouble to do it on horseback but she's improving and her mood brightens.</p><p> </p><p>Auckes congratulates her on her achievements and then makes her work on her distractions and her discretion. She maybe can untie knots blind but she still has trouble with keeping her breathing even and not disrupting his clothes or his belt. And she desperatly wants to master her new skill.</p><p> </p><p>When she is deemed passable, Auckes starts to teach her to steal from pockets. It's a skill that needs a lot of focus and calm and Ciri feels clumsy all around again. It takes them almost a month to reach Ellander and by that time her skills at pickpocketing from belts are almost perfect, according to Auckes, but she still needs to work harder at sublety when it comes to reaching into clothes.</p><p> </p><p>They comb Ellander from south to north but don't find any traces of Jaskier. Some people know about him, and a few have met him, but the encounters all date back from a few years past. They are at a loss about what to do and Ciri's mood sours again.</p><p> </p><p>She wakes up from nightmares in the middle of the night often and tears come unbidden to her eyes at least once a day and she hates herself for it. Auckes doesn't really know how to deal with her moodswings and pats her back awkwardly a few times a day.</p><p> </p><p>They are in a tavern of some village set up on the Ismena river and debating following the course of the river back to Vizima, in the faint hope of stumbling upon Jaskier on the way, when they find another witcher. Or rather the other witcher finds them.</p><p> </p><p>Auckes is brooding in a corner of the tavern and Ciri is sitting across from him playing with a rope full of knots the witcher gave her to practice her untying skills on, when she startles because a man drops down on the chair next to her.</p><p> </p><p>He's clearly a witcher, what with the swords and the eyes, has a bushy beard and a clean shaven head. He puts his swords down next to him and swallows a big gulp of his ale before nodding at Auckes.</p><p> </p><p>“Auckes, nice to see you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Coën, glad to see you're still alive,” the Viper lifts his glass and toasts him.</p><p> </p><p>“And who are you, my fair lady ?”, the new witcher asks her.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not a lady,” she complains, “And I'm Fiona.”</p><p> </p><p>“She's the damn Stalker's daughter,” Auckes interjects.</p><p> </p><p>“Really ? <em>Jaskier</em> got a kid ? And what is she doing with you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“She's cintran,” Auckes explains.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri spots Coën's face taking a turn to the sad even as she exclaims loudly :</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not from Cintra !”</p><p> </p><p>“She's the bard's bastard and a witcher got her out of the country. She then got passed around and I'm now looking for the man. He was supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity but nobody saw him recently so... we're a bit lost on what to do.”</p><p> </p><p>Coën hums, “Can't help you here. I haven't seen Jaskier for two years. I have no idea where he could be.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri grimaces at the news and keeps her head down. She feels like tears will start to pour down her cheeks quickly and she swallows convulsively, rubs at her eyes and takes a few deep breaths trying to keep them at bay. A heavy hand settles on her back and starts to stroke soothingly.</p><p> </p><p>“Last I saw him,” Auckes continues, “He was leaving Vizima and heading east, that was almost three months ago.”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm coming from Gelibol myself and no signs of him in Redania.”</p><p> </p><p>“So he probably avoided this area and went east on the other side of the river or on a boat maybe. He's probably in Kaedwen or in Aedirn by now, shit.”</p><p> </p><p>“I'd say Aedirn. He likes to spend winters in Kaedwen and it's still early for him to head north.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh crap,” Auckes groans, “I wasn't planning to head east. And I'm starting to get low on funds too, can't steal too much if I don't want to draw unwanted attention after all.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri feels Coën tense at the mention of robbery and she frowns at the table. She hadn't noticed that Auckes had trouble with money. She could have offered him a share of her purse if she had known.</p><p> </p><p>“I could take her with me,” Coën offers, “I'm heading to Aedirn anyway. I'm meeting Aiden and Lambert south of Vattweir in a few weeks. And we'd look for Jaskier on the way.”</p><p> </p><p>“That would be fucking nice of you. What do you think Fiona ? You want to travel with Coën ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know,” she whispers and finally lifts her head to look at the new witcher, “You're not a Viper though ?”</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Coën grins at her, “I'm a griffin.”</p><p> </p><p>“That means that he's all responsible and sensible and shit,” Auckes smiles at her, “He'll take care of you.”</p><p> </p><p>“I suppose that if you don't want to go east...”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm sorry, kid,” he sighs, “I have a meeting in Cidaris to attend to at the end of the summer and I would probably miss it if I went to Aedirn with you. And with Coën here...”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. Fine. Don't worry. I'll go with Coën then, I'm starting to get used to being passed around witchers anyway.”</p><p> </p><p>“How many did you meet ?”, asks the Griffin with a frown on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“Five, counting you,” Ciri shrugs.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, that's a decent number already. You're probably making your father proud.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri doesn't really know what he means by that but doesn't ask for an explanation. The more they think that she actually is Jaskier's daughter, the better it is for her. The witchers share two more drinks before going on their way. Coën tells Auckes about a haunting contract he heard about a few days ride west that should pay well enough and the Viper thanks him.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri then hugs him, thanks him and hands him his purse back with a cheeky smile. Auckes laughs at her successful robbery attempt, pats her head fondly and gets up in the saddle. He leaves with a last grin and a hand wave for Ciri. She feels her heart speed up, she'll miss him, she thinks a little bit sadly.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Dum dum dum dum, a lesson on how to become a kid's favorite by Auckes of the Vipers :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Stop stealing !</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And new chapter!<br/>I'm pretty sure that from this point on, this fic could be named "Ciri the thief" and it would be accurate... Thanks so much for that, Auckes :D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Like Auckes promised, Coën really is a responsible witcher. He almost always keeps an eye on Ciri, makes sure that she has enough to eat and that she is comfortable at night. He makes them stay at inns at least twice every week so that she can have a bath. He even tries to give her the bed but Ciri refuses. The man probably needs it more than her.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri continues to practice her stealing on Coën, because she's not about to let all her hard-work go to waste, even if the Griffin clearly disapproves. He grimaces at her and slaps her hands away multiple times a day, and Ciri is so proud when, on the seventh day of their acquaintance, she manages to steal the purse hanging on his belt. The purse is empty and clearly worn only for her benefit, she's glad to see him humoring her, but she's still so happy.</p><p> </p><p>After her victory, she grows in confidence and decides to test her skills for real in the next town they'll come across. They don't reach a town but another village and Coën drags her to an inn. He leaves her at a table, with a mug of tea, and an order not to move. He then goes to the bar to ask the barkeep if Jaskier passed through recently.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri watches him from afar but he doesn't seem to be looking at her. So she turns her attention on the other patrons and spots a burly man who has a fat purse hanging from his belt. Ciri bites her lips, glances at Coën, who still seems occupied, and decides to try to challenge her new skills.</p><p> </p><p>She gets up and approaches the man slowly. Her palms start to get clamy and she is starting to sweat. Her heartbeat is going fast but she still forces herself to bump into the man. He catches her arm to steady her and she panics at the grip and her fingers fumble at his belt. The man's attention is then drawn to his purse and she sees his face contort in anger.</p><p> </p><p>The man slaps her hand away from his purse hard and shakes her multiple times. He's strong and she can't get away from him so she starts to cry. That just seems to infuriate the man even more. She's just aware enough to note that the inn has gone quiet while the man rants at her, and then a heavy hand falls on her shoulder and she is guided gently towards Coën's chest where she burrows.</p><p> </p><p>She hears Coën bargain with the man and then with the innkeeper, but they are still firmly thrown out of the inn. The witcher leads her to the posts where the horses are tied and then takes her firmly by the shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>“What the hell was that, Fiona ? I told you to stay put !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri can hear the anger in his voice and bows her head.</p><p> </p><p>“I wanted to try my hand at stealing for real,” she mumbles.</p><p> </p><p>“But why ?”, Coën asks clearly puzzled, “You have everything you need !”</p><p> </p><p>“Today. I have everything I need today. But maybe I'll be forced to steal to survive tomorrow.”</p><p> </p><p>“Jaskier won't let it come to that, you know. You may not know him but he is a good man.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you say so,” Ciri shrugs.</p><p> </p><p>“If you were my kid, I'd spank you till you cried, but seeing as you are just my ward, I will refrain. As your punishment, you'll walk until we make camp tonight. Maybe that'll teach you to mind your fingers.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri follows after Coën and the two horses for the rest of the day on foot and her feet are sore and blistered when they finally stop. The witcher lets her put her feet in the nearby stream and offers her a cream to put on her blisters. He then makes sure that she eats enough and lets her go to bed early.</p><p> </p><p>“Just don't do it again, Fiona. Stealing will bring you nothing but trouble.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri just shrugs in her bedroll but doesn't answer him. Privately she vows to continue on her endeavour, Auckes didn't teach her all of these skills for nothing and she wants to master them. She just needs more practice and to start to relax when she's close to her targets. She wakes up screaming that night again and Coën holds her close until she manages to fall asleep.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Ciri can't stop, and doesn't really want to stop, so she keeps trying to improve her stealing skills. She gets caught three more times but manages to leave with a small but heavy purse on her fourth attempt.</p><p> </p><p>On the third attempt, she and Coën are in a market and Ciri is looking for a new skirt and some shirts, when she spots a wealthy merchant a few stalls away. She squeals, hands Roach's reins to Coën and disappears promptly into the crowd. She hopes that Coën will think that she saw something worth buying, and will let her have time to put her skills to use.</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately a woman holding a stand behind her target sees her trying to steal from the merchant and she is caught. She pouts and takes note that she needs to stay more aware of her surroundings for her next attempt. The merchant then grips her arm tightly and drags her to the guards. She tries to twist out of his grip to run to Coën, but the man won't let her go.</p><p> </p><p>The guards laugh at her, bind her arms in front of her and she panics. She bucks in their hold, yells for Coën and even drops to the ground like a dead weight. She doesn't see the witcher coming and collects a bruise on her right cheekbone when the guards grow tired of her struggling. She follows them quietly after that.</p><p> </p><p>She spends her afternoon huddled in the corner of a cell and wonders if Coën will just abandon her. After all, he had repeatedly said that he didn't want her to be stealing. But in the evening, after the sun has gone down and Ciri's stomach is rumbling in hunger, she hears a commotion from the guards' hall.</p><p> </p><p>A few minutes later Coën appears in front of her cell, with one of his swords drawn and a heavily displeased scowl on his face. He opens the door to her cell and drags her behind him towards the exit. Ciri spots three guardsmen laying prone on the floor in the hall they cross and suddenly she feels bad.</p><p> </p><p>“Are they dead ?”, she whispers and stares at them until Coën pushes her outside.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher doesn't answer and helps her up onto Roach's saddle. She scratches the mare behind the ears and urges her to follow Coën's own horse who is racing away. They stop briefly after an hour, just enough time for Coën to apply a salve on her bruised cheekbone and for him to reassure her a bit.</p><p> </p><p>“They aren't dead,” he says to her and she can still hear the anger in his voice, even as his hands are gentle on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“What ?”, she asks him stupidly.</p><p> </p><p>“The guards. I didn't kill them. I just hit them hard enough to render them unconscious. But that is what happens when you don't think your actions through, people get hurt. And not always the bad ones either.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods at him and seriously ponders what Coën told her through the night. She may have been a little bit careless, that is true. But one day, her skills may be the difference between life and death and she's still determined to master them. To make Auckes proud of her. Next time, she decides, she's going to steal a purse perfectly and she <em>won't</em> get caught, she can't get caught.</p><p> </p><p>Coën forces the horses to ride all night long and only makes them stop the next day when the sun is high up in the sky. Ciri is glad to be off Roach's back and runs to the woods to relieve herself as soon as her feet touch the ground. She expects Coën to be waiting for her with a smile when she comes back, but the witcher is still quite unhappy.</p><p> </p><p>He hands her the waterskins and points to a nearby stream so Ciri goes to fill them up. When she comes back, the camp is set and the horses, while still saddled, are grazing.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you sleep in the cell ?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. I couldn't,” she mumbles</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, I'm going hunting. Meanwhile, you can take a nap. I'll wake you up when I come back.”</p><p> </p><p>“Is it safe ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not going far. I'll hear you if you have a problem,” he says without looking at her and leaves.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri gets her bedroll out and spreads it in the shade. She then flops down onto it and falls asleep in a matter of seconds. Coën shakes her up in what feels like only a few minutes later, but she spots four rabbits roasting over a newly made fire, an armful of clover and some blackberries in a bowl, so he probably let her enjoy her nap a bit longer than planned. They'll eat well today, she thinks, and eyes the fruits eagerly.</p><p> </p><p>But the witcher orders her to take care of the horses and she leaves the food alone. She takes off the rest of the horses' gear, brushes them and leads them to the stream to drink. When she comes back, dinner is ready and, after their meal, the Griffin has her sit next to him and dumps a pile of blades at their feet.</p><p> </p><p>Coën then hands her a whetstone and teaches her how to take care of a blade. It's a slow process and she spends a week practicing every evening, until her hands hurt, to present a dagger that the witcher deems perfectly sharpened.</p><p> </p><p>After that Coën has her practice the art of throwing daggers. And when Ciri is done practicing for the night, she gets her whetstone out and sharpens all the blades she used under the watchful gaze of the witcher.</p><p> </p><p>She's so busy with the daggers that she mostly forgets about stealing. And when they happen across a market and they leave without causing trouble, Coën gifts her a new dagger. She thanks him and smiles widely at him, all the while hoping that the witcher won't discover the purse that she finally stole successfully.</p><p> </p><p>Their journey is otherwise calm, they live mostly off the food the land provides and only go into towns to ask about Jaskier. So far their quest has been pointless.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri finally finds a skirt and two almost new shirts that she can afford. She spots Coën counting his coins several times over their travel and tries to offer him some money, at least the stolen purse, but he refuses and they camp almost every night instead.</p><p> </p><p>She then tries to bully him to take on a contract if he needs coin so badly, but he refuses and states that he can't keep an eye on her while fighting monsters at the same time. Ciri rolls her eyes at him because she can take care of herself for a few minutes, thank you very much, even if she still doesn't like to stay alone for too long.</p><p> </p><p>The matter is taken out of their hands three weeks into their journey, when they stumble upon an abandonned cart in the middle of a bridge spanning a river. Ciri shouts at the cart but nobody answers her. Coën then makes them backtrack and leaves her with the two horses a good distance away from the bridge while he goes to investigate.</p><p> </p><p>She's settled so far away from the bridge that she can't see what is happening. She doesn't hear a sound either, and to keep herself occupied and not fretting about the witcher, she gets Geralt's dagger out and starts to throw it at a tree. She can hit the trunk one time out of ten nowadays and she stubbornly continues to practice. She's determined to master this new skill too.</p><p> </p><p>Coën comes back a good while later, dripping wet, and she turns her back to him as he towels himself off and slips into dry clothes. They then go up to the bridge, where Coën explains that he found a couple of drowners, and they take the cart with them on the way. The owner is very probably dead and the witcher needs the coin so Ciri convinces him to sell the cart and the horse a few towns over.</p><p> </p><p>They leave the settlement with a new hefty purse and continue on their way. In the next few days Ciri notices that Coën becomes more and more agitated and an evening when she can't contain her curiosity anymore, she asks him :</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you so fidgety lately ?”</p><p> </p><p>“We're a bit late on the schedule,” he answers, “because of all the time we spent asking about your father, and the few times we had to make detours thanks to your bad stealing habit. I was supposed to meet with some friends two days ago and it'll take us at least another five days of travel to get there.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh !,”, Ciri whispers, “I'm sorry. Will they wait for you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe,” Coën shrugs, “They're not very patient men but we can only hope.”</p><p> </p><p>After their conversation, Ciri keeps her hands to herself in the next settlements they visit so that they can leave quickly and not fall behind on the witcher's schedule. But when they arrive at their destination, five days later, they find a ransacked tavern and a mob of villagers chase them away, because apparently a witcher got into a fight and destroyed the establishment.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri is a bit worried by the news but Coën sports a fond smile on his lips so she just decides to trust him. They travel another day south and she sees the witcher relax when they happen upon an inn in an another small village.</p><p> </p><p>“What is it ? Are they here ?”, Ciri asks and looks intently all around her.</p><p> </p><p>“They're at the inn. I can hear them. Come on, we'll stable the horses and get you something to drink while I catch up.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods at him and they head for the stables. They give the horses to a boy, who promises to take care of them against a small tip. When they finally enter the inn, Coën seems to forget about her and heads for the darkest corner of the dining hall, where Ciri can just make out two shapes.</p><p> </p><p>She sees Coën and the two other men embrace each other tightly and he motions her forward when they sit down again.</p><p> </p><p>“Fiona, I'd like you to meet Aiden and Lambert. Guys, meet Fiona, she's Jaskier's daughter.”</p><p> </p><p>She takes a seat at the table and bears their heavy gazes without flinching. She looks at their medallion and stares intently at Lambert's, because it's in the shape of a wolf and Geralt's was a wolf too. She bites her lip and wonders if she should tell him the truth. But then does she tell only him ? Can she get him alone ? Will he believe her ? Can he even take her back to Geralt ?</p><p> </p><p>“Fiona ! Fiona !”, she is so lost in her thoughts that she lost the thread of the conversation.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry. What ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Here, have a drink,” Aiden says and tries to set a mug in front of her.</p><p> </p><p>“That better not be alcohol,” Coën says sternly and intercepts the drink.</p><p> </p><p>Aiden rolls his eyes and smiles, “It's tea, dumbass, I don't want to have to deal with an inebriated kid.”</p><p> </p><p>“Might be fun,” Lambert smirks.</p><p> </p><p>“Behave,” whispers Aiden to him.</p><p> </p><p>Coën sniffs the drink and seems satisfied with it because he gives it back to Ciri who offers him a smile. Ciri takes the mug carefully, blows on the tea and starts to sip it slowly.</p><p> </p><p>“They told me that they haven't seen Jaskier lately,” Coën continues, “We might need to backtrack and try Kaedwen or go up to Redania anyway.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh,” Ciri says disappointed, “That's... crap, I don't really fancy a trip back.”</p><p> </p><p>“Me neither but well, nothing else to do,” he sympathises with her and squeezes her shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, don't worry, you'll find him. Jaskier just can't stay away from witchers,” Lambert intervenes and then promptly turns towards Coën, “So we have a room upstairs, interested in discussing the matter more... <em>thoroughly</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri is sure that she is missing something, something to do with the weird intonation of the last word. She narrows her eyes at Lambert as he gets up. Aiden stands right after him and they take a few steps towards the stairs before they turn back to glance weirdly at Coën, who hasn't left her side.</p><p> </p><p>“I can't just leave her in an unfamiliar place, Lambert ! What if she gets in trouble ?”, he hisses at his friend.</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri frowns at him behind his back because she can totally take care of herself. Or most of the time anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“By Melitele's tits, the girl is old enough to stay out of trouble for a few hours,” he says in an exasperated tone of voice.</p><p> </p><p>Lambert then fishes a few coins out of his pocket and hands them to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Here, buy yourself something to eat and yell if you need us. We'll hear you.”</p><p> </p><p>Lambert grips Coën by his arm, lifts him up from his seat and pushes him towards the stairs. He turns back just before disappearing upstairs to say to her :</p><p> </p><p>“And Fiona, stay out of trouble ! We're going to be very busy for the next few hours and very cross if we have to come to your rescue, understood ?”</p><p> </p><p>She nods at him and looks weirdly at the coins in her hand. She hears Coën berate Lambert for his rudeness while they go up and Aiden waves cheerfully at her before he jogs up the stairs after the other two witchers. <em>Strange</em>, she thinks, <em>what do they have to discuss that requires such privacy ?</em></p><p> </p><p>Her question is answered an hour later, and she wishes she could forget the fact that she ever wanted to know, when Coën comes back down. He looks properly dishevelled, his armour is off, he's barefoot and the laces of his shirt are open. She spots several love bites on his neck and blushes heavily when he dumps an armful of daggers on the table in front of her.</p><p> </p><p>He reminds her of Eist, she thinks, just after he came back from an hour locked with her grandmother “arguing over matters of state” in an empty room. She wasn't blind then and she isn't blind now and turns to the daggers before her.</p><p> </p><p>“We... we probably need a few more hours,” Coën says awkwardly, “To... iron some details out. Can you sharpen the daggers in the meanwhile ? Please ? It'll keep you busy.”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course. I'll take care of it,” Ciri says.</p><p> </p><p>She decides to ignore the fact that his question sounds like a desperate plea and pointedly doesn't look at him. She keeps her gaze on the daggers, gets her whetstone out of her pack and sets to work. She shoos Coën away with a wave of her hand, when he persists in hovering awkwardly next to her and it is painfully obvious that he longs to go back upstairs.</p><p> </p><p>“Right. Thank you, Fiona. I'll see you... soon”, he mumbles and flees.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri rolls her eyes and lets the dagger she had been holding fall from her hands. She thumps her head on the table because her supposedly <em>responsible</em> caretaker just ditched her for sex and she won't be able to look him straight in the eyes ever again.</p><p> </p><p>She lets out a nervous laugh and gets up when she has her blushing under control. She goes to the bar and orders another tea and a meal, she's going to need it, she thinks.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>When Geralt finally reaches Vizima, he arrives completely exhausted. And worse, he finds no signs of Cirilla or of Jaskier. After a day spent in an inn resting, he asks around town and learns that the bard left the city, alone and in a hurry, three months ago and that he was headed east. Geralt looks at his source of information in complete befuddlement and leaves him while muttering imprecations under his breath.</p><p> </p><p>He doesn't know what to do and where to go and spends another day in the city torn with indecision. Luckily he stumbles upon one of Jaskier's acquaintance in a tavern that informs him that the bard went back to Oxenfurt.</p><p> </p><p>Seeing as Geralt doesn't know where Ciri is and that maybe she found her way to the bard in the meantime, he leaves Vizima on foot and goes running towards Oxenfurt. He prays that he'll find his daughter and his friend safe there.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Jaskier is in Caingorn when he stumbles upon the Caravan of the Cats camping in the woods. He tries to leave at a run but Mal, the leader, drags him back to a fire pit and offers him a tankard of ale that Jaskier doesn't dare refuse. He drinks in silence and tries to ignore the Cats who are preparing dinner and creepy Mal who is staring at the scar on his throat like he is <span>hypnotized by it.</span></p><p> </p><p>When at last he finishes his drink, he asks where the Caravan is headed and vows to avoid Tridam and the north-west of Redania for a while. He tells them that he is going to Poviss and when he is finally allowed to leave, after a few threats and an unwanted stroke of his throat by Mal, he heads west for a few miles before changing direction and running towards the south-east and Gelibol. He plans to spend all of his summer there, far away from the Cats, and then he'll go visit his family's estate in Redania. It'll make for a good comfortable winter, he muses.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For those who were wondering, Coën didn't purposely leave her in the cell. He just didn't manage to get to her in time and the guards wouldn't give her back to him.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Travelling nightmare</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Ciri spends her evening in the dining hall alone, because the witchers still haven't come back down, and asks the innkeeper for a place to sleep. The man informs her that he doesn't have any free room left but that she can sleep in the common room against a small fee.</p><p> </p><p>She sighs and pays the man what he demands. When the patrons start to leave, she chooses a corner of the dining hall, spreads her bedroll on the floor and goes to sleep next to her pile of daggers. Nobody bothers her.</p><p> </p><p>In the morning, she orders a hearty breakfast, sharpens every dagger again and starts to get annoyed at the witchers, who still haven't come down. She's bored soon enough, debates going upstairs to knock on their door but quickly abandons the idea, she feels like she'll end up scared for life if she goes through with this plan.</p><p> </p><p>So when midday comes around and people start to enter the inn, which also serves as a tavern, she steals two purses, keeps the heaviest one and hooks the other one to another man's belt. She then informs the man she robbed of the theft and points at her designated victim.</p><p> </p><p>She spends the entire bar fight sitting on the bar and cheering on the fighters. The owner looks irate by the time he manages to throw the fighters out and Ciri disappears back to her corner of the hall with a satisfied smile on her face and a bowl of stew.</p><p> </p><p>She plays with the daggers for another two hours before the witchers finally appear. Well, Aiden and Lambert come back down, Coën is nowhere to be seen. They head directly for her and Lambert starts to collect the weapons while Aiden grips her arm and drags her to the door.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey ! Hey !”, Ciri exclaims and kicks the witcher's shins, “Where's Coën ? What are you doing ? Let me go !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher only lets her go when they arrive at the stables. She sees Lambert deposit Coën's weapons with the Griffin's horse and turn to the biggest horse in the stalls to saddle him.</p><p> </p><p>“Alright,” Aiden says to her and beams, “We're kidnapping you ! You're coming with us, we'll find your father !”</p><p> </p><p>“Does Coën know about this ?”, she asks dubiously.</p><p> </p><p>“What he doesn't know can't hurt him,” Aiden shrugs, “And you seem like someone fun, you don't deserve to be stuck with Coën for another month.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods and decides to go with them. It's true that she got Coën angry a few times and the man probably deserves a little bit of peace. And if she follows them, she can maybe catch Lambert alone and tell him about Geralt. If he proves himself trustworthy, of course. She goes to Roach's stall and gets the mare ready for travel before leading her out to join the two witchers.</p><p> </p><p>“What the fuck !,” Lambert exclaims when he sees her and stalks to her, “What are you doing with Roach ?”</p><p> </p><p>“You know Roach ?”, she asks excitedly.</p><p> </p><p>“She's my brother's. Did you steal it ?”, he growls at her.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn't !”, Ciri defends herself, “Geralt gave her to me.”</p><p> </p><p>“That is a load of bullshit ! He wouldn't be parted from his horse !”</p><p> </p><p>“I... Eh... Oh...”, Ciri mumbles confused before offering a version of the truth in a whisper, “He got me out of Cintra because he said that I was his friend's daughter and... and we were ambushed. He told me to run, that he would come back for me. Only he didn't and I don't know where he is !”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, fuck. You mean to tell me that he could be dead ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know. He said that he'd come back !”, Ciri whispers furiously and she is so close to crying again.</p><p> </p><p>“Lambert, lay off her,” Aiden intervenes, “She looks like she might cry.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. Fine. No worries. Geralt's tough. I'm sure that he's alright.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri sees him scratching his head with a hand and then scrubbing his face with both and she's sure that he's trying to reassure himself as well as her. The small smile she directs at him is a bit wobbly but at least she manages to hold her tears in. Lambert then hoists her up in Roach's saddle and goes back to the other horse. When he is settled, he extends a hand to Aiden who mounts behind him.</p><p> </p><p>“You don't have a horse ?”, she asks the Cat.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” he shakes his head, “I prefer walking, but we need to make a quick get away if we want to be gone when Coën wakes up. We'll share for now. We're used to it, don't worry.”</p><p> </p><p>Aiden smiles at her and then passes an arm around Lambert's waist and they are off, the horse running north. Ciri shakes her head and spurs Roach on, the mare catches up to the witchers easily and she even overtakes them. She lets out a small laugh and hopes that she'll find Jaskier or Geralt at the end of this journey.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Travelling with Aiden and Lambert turns out to be a nightmare. And Ciri curses herself frequently and wonders why she didn't stay with Coën instead. She wouldn't have to put up with overly sappy gestures, heated stares and wandering hands when the two witchers share the horse.</p><p> </p><p>They are worse than even Eist and her grandmother were, she decides, and so focused on one another, it's sometimes sickening. She's almost sure that half the time they're being obnoxious on purpose and just love to make her squirm and blush.</p><p> </p><p>But other times, they are just so enraptured with each other that they seem to completely forget her existence. She gags, loudly, in these moments.</p><p> </p><p>When they stop in the evening, her two companions always disappear for at least an hour before one of them comes back and the other goes hunting. Ciri learns quickly that it is best if she sets the camp up in the meantime and doesn't wander, she'll remember the sight of the two of them rolling around almost naked in the grass next to a stream forever and wishes she could erase it from her memory.</p><p> </p><p>But in return, she has time to practice her dagger throwing and Aiden's actually a decent teacher when he's present. He gets her to reach her target six times out of ten in a week only. And Lambert insists to teach her how to swear properly after hearing her say “stupid” or “shit” one too many times for his sanity. She humors him but isn't really sure that she wants to end up speaking like him.</p><p> </p><p>The two of them stop in villages more often that the other witchers she travelled with did too. They drink and eat in taverns at midday but don't sleep in inns, they usually are thrown out of the settlements before they can even inquire about a room. And if they manage to stay in an establishment long enough for the night to fall, they leave anyway because they don't want to spend the coin on two rooms. Two because there's <em>no way</em> Ciri's sharing with them, she's not mad.</p><p> </p><p>Lambert likes to initiate fights, physical or verbal, over games he loses or wins by cheating, over a stupid comment mumbled as they pass or because he just feels like it. And Aiden just cheers him on and only intervenes when they need to leave in a hurry to drag his lover away from the fights.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri always shakes her head at their behaviour but at least she can steal purses without fearing Coën's wrath. Aiden and Lambert clearly don't care and she acquires a small amount of hefty purses. She usually targets only rich merchants, with the exception of that one noble, and even starts to work on her pocket lifting skills.</p><p> </p><p>She can now steal a purse hanging from any belt without a single problem but she hasn't yet managed to acquire something that rests in her targets' pockets. She needs to work on her sublety and to steady her hands.</p><p> </p><p>And work she does. She gets caught often and usually screams loud enough that her captors let her go and then she runs to the witchers who may or may not yet be in the center of a brawl. If they aren't, she just gives Lambert an excuse to start one and he doesn't complain about it.</p><p> </p><p>They also take contracts on the road. And that is something new for Ciri, because the other witchers tended to stay focused on her safety and avoided going monster hunting while in her company.</p><p> </p><p>Usually, only one of them takes care of it and the other stays with her at the camp but twice during their journey, they both disappear and come back stinking and bloody but alive. Ciri usually worries when they are gone and turns to training more when she's alone or with just one of them.</p><p> </p><p>So she picks up new skills again. Aiden teaches her to climb trees efficiently and to jump from one tree to another if it's possible. Ciri stubbornly battles her fear of height and throws herself from branches to branches after the Cat and only has to be caught a handful of times. She doesn't really like the jumping, she decides, but she loves the climbing so she continues to heed Aiden's guidance.</p><p> </p><p>Lambert teaches her about bombs when her hands are so bruised and scratched that she can't climb without wincing and whimpering in pain. He makes her blend ingredients together, makes her memorize list of components and she has a collection of five bombs by the time she's passed on to another witcher.</p><p> </p><p>On their second session, she botches two attempts at making bombs but Lambert insists that they throw them at a tree nevertheless. So Ciri lights the wicks and throws them at her designated target with a fierce cry. The bombs hit their target but don't explode and Lambert retrieves them and dumps them in the nearby river as a precaution.</p><p> </p><p>Then they launch knives at the tree and she learns about the cathartic effect of screaming and imagining your ennemies in place of your target. Lambert joins her in her practice and she feels like he has a lot of ennemies or a lot of things he hates anyway. He gets lost in the violence and Ciri lets him be after a while.</p><p> </p><p>When Aiden comes back from hunting, he takes one look at the Wolf snarling at the tree, grimaces and decides to let him be. They eat together, with Lambert's shouts in the background, and Ciri wonders if she shouldn't have tried to stop him.</p><p> </p><p>When they hear Lambert starting to punch the tree though, Aiden finally gets up and heads for the Wolf. Ciri hears a few more angered cries but the noise soon stops. She doesn't want to know what happened and hurries to go to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>When she wakes up in the morning, the two witchers are tightly entwined together and Aiden, for once the first awake, mouths at her to be quiet over Lambert sleeping body. They don't depart before midday.</p><p> </p><p>Lambert and Aiden also teach her about plants. She already knows some of them and can pick edible ones well enough by now, but the witchers show her plants or barks that can be used as painkillers or made into a paste to apply to wounds or bruises or brewed into tea to help if you catch the shits. She tries to remember everything they tell her, because it seems important and the knowledge could eventually prove useful.</p><p> </p><p>So all in all, they travel slowly. They usually stop early in the evenings to make camp and leave at dawn after spending a long time badgering Aiden to wake up and they stop frequently in inns and to take contracts. The slow pace is making Ciri anxious but the witchers don't seem bothered.</p><p> </p><p>After asking them why they weren't in a hurry, they had explained to her that they only spent two months at most, and usually onle one, together every year and that they liked to enjoy them. It was true that the contracts' rewards were barely enough for one witcher to thrive on so it wasn't always possible for the two of them to hunt together.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri helps with their expenses. Even if they mostly live off the land, they still need money to pay for meals and drinks, and is relieved when the witchers accept some of her stolen purses as a means of payment.</p><p> </p><p>But the pleasure she gets at learning new skills or practicing old ones doesn't erase all the mushiness that the two witchers delight in, especially if it makes her uncomfortable. They often cuddle together, steal kisses at the most unexpected moment, engage in heavy make out sessions on the side of the road while Ciri is just <em>there</em> and most annoying of all, they hand feed each other almost every evening.</p><p> </p><p>It's on one of these evenings, with Ciri on one side of their fire and the two witchers snuggled together on the other side that she asks :</p><p> </p><p>“Can you stop with the freaking hand-feeding ? Please ? I'm right here !”</p><p> </p><p>Lambert flips her off and she sees him wrapping his tongue around one of Aiden's fingers and Ciri makes a disgusted sound. She's sure that he made the gesture on purpose just to spook her.</p><p> </p><p>“You're unbelievable !” she comments and grumbles, “It's like you're just freshly married, your cuteness overload is just disgusting.”</p><p> </p><p>“I wouldn't say freshly,” Aiden answers with a grin, “But we are married.”</p><p> </p><p>“What ?”, Lambert asks loudly as he disengages himself from the Cat and Ciri perks up because this has the potential to be the start of a great albeit weird story.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, darling, we're married”, Aiden announces with a long suffering sigh, “Fifteen times over now.”</p><p> </p><p>“How can you be married fifteen times over ?”, Ciri wonders at the same time as Lambert repeats, “What ?”</p><p> </p><p>“The usual way, I guess,” Aiden says and scratches his head slightly.</p><p> </p><p>“Surely not,” Ciri snorts, “I don't even think that two men can officially marry each other anywhere on this continent.”</p><p> </p><p>“And that's why we can make our own rules up !”</p><p> </p><p>Aiden beams at her and Ciri rolls her eyes while Lambert seems to be frozen in bewilderment. She sees the Cat snap his fingers several times in front of his face but Lambert just keeps staring at Aiden.</p><p> </p><p>“I think you broke him,” Ciri says helpfully and chews loudly on another bit of rabbit.</p><p> </p><p>Aiden frowns, takes Lambert hands in his owns and starts to say his name slowly and quietly as if he is afraid to make him bolt. Ciri smiles at the display and settles comfortably to watch the drama unfold.</p><p> </p><p>“We're not married,” Lambert finally splutters.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course we are.”</p><p> </p><p>“You didn't propose !”</p><p> </p><p>“I did !”, Aiden growls, “I proposed twelve times and you three ! And then we kissed and we're married now.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hum, Aiden, I'm pretty sure I didn't,” Lambert says and he really sounds confused.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course you did, I accepted your three rings !”, he exclaims and wiggles one his fingers, which Ciri knows sports a ring, and gets a leather chord out from under his shirt where she can see two other rings dangling.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh !”, Lambert exclaims stupidly.</p><p> </p><p>“And I gave you twelve rings, that you accepted. I know that you keep four of them around your neck !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri snorts when she sees Lambert wince, they are so entertaining.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn't know that they were proposals,” Lambert says and backs away slowly from the Cat, “It is possible that I don't have the eight other rings anymore...”</p><p> </p><p>“What ?”, Aiden growls and gets up to pace.</p><p> </p><p>“Remember the nice room we had for three days in Oxenfurt five years ago ? That was ring number eleven,” Lambert explains in a hurry.</p><p> </p><p>“You sold it ?”</p><p> </p><p>“It had a big diamant on it ! I wasn't going to keep it if I could find something useful to do with it !”</p><p> </p><p>“But you kept the plain wooden one !”, Aiden exclaims loudly.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course I kept the wooden one, you gave it to me after I almost died, it's a fucking keepsake ! So that I know that you care. I'm not going to throw it away !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri grimaces when she sees the look of fond adoration come back to Aiden's face. The Cat goes down on his knees in front of Lambert and cups his cheeks.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course I care, you idiot. Like I know that you care.”</p><p> </p><p>And they kiss and Ciri makes a strangled sound and averts her eyes. <em>Huh, grownups</em>, she thinks, <em>disgusting</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“So what happened to the other rings ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I've got ring one to three, plus six around my neck. I bought a horse with four, I lost twelve at Gwent, eleven was the room in Oxenfurt. I'm pretty sure five got eaten by my horse who then got eaten by a griffin, eight got me a nice meal when I was starving an autumn years ago, nine was used to buy these expansive soaps you so love and … I can't remember what happened to seven and ten.”</p><p> </p><p>“Mm, then that makes us married seven times over and divorced eight times over. You're going to have to make it up to me to at least make it even,” Aiden announces seriously and pokes Lambert in the chest.</p><p> </p><p>“These maths are <em>so </em>wrong. Aren't you married fifteen times and divorced eight ?,” Ciri mutters under her breath but her comment is ignored.</p><p> </p><p>“That's bullshit !”, the Wolf exclaims, “We're not married. I can't be married if I didn't know it. Anf if we're not married, we can't be divorced either ! Kid, tell him !”</p><p> </p><p>And Lambert turns to her with big pleading eyes and Ciri laughs at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I'd say that an exchange of rings and kisses should be enough to count for official marriage”, she says with a shit-eating grin and watches Lambert glare at her like she betrayed him, “Oh, and of course your families should know about it. That's the bare minimum, I'd say.”</p><p> </p><p>“The Cats know about us. Every witcher knows about us, so that means that we're totally married !”</p><p> </p><p>“You forget that the members of my family are all antisocial grumps and I'm pretty sure that they don't know a thing about us. They don't even know that you're a Cat and that we spend at least a month together every year ! So we're really not married.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri rolls her eyes because they sound and act married to her so they can as well claim the title too. She gets up when it looks like the two witchers are getting stuck in a staring contest and gets her tea out of her bag. She has the time to put her water next to the fire to heat before Aiden speaks again.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I say that we're married so we totally are. And you can fight me on this but you won't win.”</p><p> </p><p>“That's not how it works, Aiden !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri sees the Cat smile at Lambert and drag him to his feet. He then pushes him towards the forest.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing ? Aiden ? Are you cross with me ? Am I going to have to run for my life ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Husband, would you kindly shut up and just do as you're told for a while ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Husband ?”, Lambert wonders in a dazzed tone of voice.</p><p> </p><p>“No need for you to stay too close,” Ciri yells after them, “I don't need to know anything about your nightime activities, I'm scarred enough as it is !”</p><p> </p><p>The sound of Aiden's laugh is the only answer she gets before they disappear in the forest. She hopes that they go far away enough that she won't need to listen to them.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri shakes her head at them because they can be so stupid and ridiculous sometimes and pours her tea leaves in the now hot water. She then practices her dagger throwing for a little while. The two witchers aren't back yet when she goes to sleep and Ciri bemoans her fate.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It takes them a month and a half to reach Hagge and Ciri doesn't really know how they manage to be so slow. She's fretting after a month of travel because it seems to her that the witchers aren't really concerned about finding Jaskier and are mostly relying on luck.</p><p> </p><p>She's thought about telling Lambert that she's Geralt's child surprise but she really doesn't want to be stuck with him, or worse <em>him and Aiden</em>, for longer than is necessary.</p><p> </p><p>She can just imagine the nightmare that would be travelling with the Wolf witcher alone, they would probably end up dead in a ditch in two weeks. She doesn't know how he survives without Aiden to keep him moderatly out of trouble.</p><p> </p><p>So when they finally reach Hagge, Ciri's been in a bad mood for two weeks and she just can't stand the public displays of affection of the two idiots anymore. She's taken up the habit to pelt them with small stones or branches or acorns at dinner but it doesn't seem to deter them. They just flip her off and disappear into the woods or the tall grass to enjoy each other.</p><p> </p><p>“We're stopping at the inn,” Aiden tells her when they arrive at the town surrounding Hagge's castle, “Come on, get down from Roach.”</p><p> </p><p>She growls at him but jumps to the ground anyway because she could do with a fresh drink. Aiden steers her towards a table in a corner and sits with her while Lambert goes up to the bar. She doesn't know why it's Lambert that gets to order for them, they'll be lucky if they aren't thrown out in the next few minutes.</p><p> </p><p>She grunts at Lambert when he deposits a tankard of fresh elderberry juice in front of her and averts her eyes from the witchers when she sees Aiden make grabby hands towards the apple pie the Wolf's carrying.</p><p> </p><p>She hopes she'll be allowed to have a slice too but the Cat commandeers the whole pie and doesn't seem inclined to share. Lambert lets him demolish the pie and just looks at him with a fond expression on his face.</p><p> </p><p>The witchers are immersed in each other and Ciri's looking out of the window, towards the sky, when two swords are violently slammed onto their table and they all jump out of their skin. Ciri scrambles up, takes a dagger out of the sheath she now keeps strapped on her forearm and snarls at the newcomer. Lambert and Aiden are up too and their hackles are raised.</p><p> </p><p>“Who the fuck left you two shitheads in charge of a kid ?”, the new witcher asks.</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck off, Letho !”, Lambert growls and tries to leave.</p><p> </p><p>He is stopped when the newcomer grips his arm and when Lambert turns back to snarl savagely at him, Ciri thinks that the encounter will end in bloodshed. But the newcomer whistles at the bar and bellows for the barkeep to bring three new ales and another apple pie. That's apparently enough for Aiden to sit back down and Lambert follows his suit.</p><p> </p><p>“Come back, kid,” the man tells her gruffly and she takes her seat back gingerly too. “So who's the kid ?”</p><p> </p><p>“She's named Fiona. She's Jaskier's daughter. We're trying to bring her back to him,” Lambert explains while Aiden busies himself with his new pie.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri tries to steal a slice from the Cat witcher but her hand almost gets speared by a fork so she cautiously retreats.</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck, a bastard daughter, really ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Mm, just as much of a pain in the ass as her father,” Lambert smirks at Letho and Ciri kicks him under the table.</p><p> </p><p>“And where's her father ?”</p><p> </p><p>“We don't really know. Coën brought her to us from Temeria hoping to find him in Aedirn. But he's not there. We're debating trying Kaedwen or going to Redania.”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm coming back from Daevon myself,” the new witcher grunts, “He's not up north.”</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck,” Lambert curses, “Well, let's hope we can find him in Redania then.”</p><p> </p><p>“You going together ?”</p><p> </p><p>“We usually part ways at this time of the year,” Lambert grimaces, “One of us will go north with her. We'll play it at Gwent, I suppose.”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri kicks him again under the table because her custody has already been decided by Gwent once and she's not a property to be passed around, thank you very much. The least they could do would be to ask her what she wants.</p><p> </p><p>“I could take her,” the new witcher offers.</p><p> </p><p>“Why would you want to ?”, Aiden wonders suspiciously over his apple pie.</p><p> </p><p>“I've always wanted a squire,” he shrugs, “And can you imagine her father's face when he sees her with me ? It'll drive him mad !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher smirks at Ciri and raises his glass to her. He downs it in one great gulp and his eyes don't leave hers. She glares at him and thinks that maybe travelling with the new witcher would prove interesting. Scary but interesting.</p><p> </p><p>“I guess,” Lambert shrugs, “If you're offering. Just try to keep her in one piece, will you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not a stupid brainless monster,” grumbles Letho, “I can deliver her unharmed.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good,” Aiden says, “That'll leave us a few days alone before we have to part ways too.”</p><p> </p><p>Letho snorts at the Cat and Ciri gapes at him because she is being ditched so that they can have sex in peace <em>again</em> and she kicks him too. She hopes that they get interrupted in their time together, a lot.</p><p> </p><p>The four of them finish their drinks in silence and then Aiden and Lambert briefly hug her before Letho, who is a Viper she realizes and hopes is as much fun as Auckes had been, drags her out to the stables.</p><p> </p><p>They get their horses back from the stablehand, saddle them and head north. And that is how Ciri finds herself in the company of yet another witcher and still no Jaskier anywhere in sight.</p><p> </p><p>She bemoans her fate again but fixes her gaze north stubbornly and promises herself that she'll find Jaskier or Geralt for sure in the next month. She can't continue to be passed around witchers like unwanted luggage eternally after all.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So Aiden and Lambert might have run ahead of me a little... It's just that they are my favorite at the moment and well... I hope you liked it anyway. </p><p>I have two companion pieces about them too, because they just wouldn't leave me alone, I'll post them over the weekend!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Inappropriate use of a bandit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning for a small bit of torture ahead. Nothing graphic or bloody but well...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>As it turns out, Letho is totally different from Auckes and less fun too. When he said that he wanted a squire, Ciri had imagined that she would learn new skills and that the witcher would teach her how to fight. Instead she feels like Letho's slave.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher makes her set the camp, take care of the horses, forage for edible plants, cook and do the dishes, skin the rabbits he brings back from hunting and take the camp down in the mornings. When he teaches her to set traps, she feels elated for two days before she realizes it is another excuse for the witcher to laze around in the evenings.</p><p> </p><p>She holds the pace he sets for her for a week, before she has had enough. An evening Letho orders her to check on her traps in the next early morning, before they depart, to have the time to cook her catches and then dumps his dirty laundry at her feet with a mean smile, and sits down on his bedroll with a contented sigh.</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri just snaps. She's not a slave, and she hasn't had a restful night in six days now, and the man wants her to work even more. She kicks his dirty shirts back to him, and while she holds his gaze, she deliberately spits twice in the soup she is stirring. Letho looks at her for a few seconds before he erupts in laughter.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri feels lost and doesn't really understand what is happening, but the witcher takes his dirty laundry back and heads for the river himself, so she counts it as a win. And later in the evening, he eats the soup without a word despite having seen her spit in it. She feels like she has successfully passed a test. </p><p> </p><p>In the days after the confrontation, Letho helps her set the camp up and take it down. He goes hunting, checks the traps in the mornings and actually guts and prepares the catches himself while Ciri cooks them. He even watches her practice her knife throwing, offers her some advice and starts to encourage her to aim at moving targets. She gets good at throwing knives even if she still struggles with the effects of the wind on the knive's trajectories.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri notices other things too. Like the fact that Letho doesn't like villages. He mostly avoids the settlements and rarely visits the taverns. If he has to go to town to buy something, he stubbornly sticks to the markets and leaves as soon as he finds what he came for.</p><p> </p><p>It makes Ciri a little bit paranoid to be so removed from human settlements. She doesn't want for anything, the land offers them everything they need, but she can't help but notice that summer is slowly coming to an end and winter isn't far away and she doesn't know where she'll spend it. </p><p> </p><p>Will Geralt be back by then ? Will she be with Jaskier ? Where does a bard even spend the winter ? Will she be with Letho ? With another witcher ? Will she be cold ? Hungry ? Does she have enough money ?</p><p> </p><p>Her fretting encourages her bad habit of stealing and she collects six new purses in two outings to some markets. Letho just raises an eyebrow at her when he catches her putting her prizes away in Roach's saddlebag but doesn't berate her. </p><p> </p><p>Ciri also starts to collect edible plants and hangs them at the free side of Roach's saddle to dry. At least, she'll have a small supply of edible plants for winter, she reasons. She buys some waxed paper to store them in and adds some dried meat to her collection too. </p><p> </p><p>Her hoarding is all well and good but her saddlebag starts to get crowded and it worries her. What if her stocks aren't enough ? One evening, as she tries to cram her last batch of dried mint into the bag, she just can't put everything back and she breaks down crying. Letho looks at her from his side of the fire and freezes in the sharpening of his swords.</p><p> </p><p>He slowly gets up, sheathes his swords and disappears in the forest. And Ciri knows that the man probably feels awkward around her crying, but she also feels like he doesn't care and the gesture doesn't help with her tears at all.</p><p> </p><p>It takes her a few minutes to collect herself and she then starts to reorganize her saddlebag. She attaches her spare dagger to her ankle beneath her skirt and folds Geralt's and her own clothes into tiny squares, and finally manages to stuff everything into her bag to her utter relief. When Letho comes back, she pretends to be asleep.</p><p> </p><p>She wonders if she should buy a second saddlebag, but she can't resolve herself to do it. To Ciri, it would mean giving up on Geralt coming back and she vows to never give up on him. She will make it back to him, she has to. In the meantime, she stops hoarding plants and sneaks the two more purses she steals into Letho's bags. She's almost sure he knows about it but he doesn't say anything, so she stays quiet too.</p><p> </p><p>Their days going north are calm, Letho sends Ciri into some towns to collect news, and waits for her at the edges of the settlements. She asks about Jaskier, but so far nobody has seen him recently and she really wonders where he is hiding, and immediately goes back to the witcher when her errand is done.</p><p> </p><p>And one day, they are attacked by bandits. Ciri doesn't expect it – who in their right mind would attack a witcher ? - and lets out a sharp cry when an arrow embeds itself into Letho's shoulder. She gets off Roach quickly and watches the witcher jump from his own mount and charge into the forest without a pause. She grabs his horse's reins and leads them away from the fight.</p><p> </p><p>She waits anxiously in the middle of the road for Letho to come back, and hears some anguished cries from time to time. And then a man comes running out of the forest towards her and she just doesn't know what to do. Does she try screaming ? Running ? Stabbing ?</p><p> </p><p>The man seems scared and, as she still is freezed with indecision, he goes behind her and, with a tight arm wound around her waist, brings her close to him. A knife is placed under her throat and her heart stutters in her chest.</p><p> </p><p>Letho comes back out from the forest a few seconds after the man, and snarls at the bandit when he spots him with her. Even Ciri is impressed and scared by the aggressive display. She feels the man tremble at her back and he orders Letho to stay away with a wobbly voice.</p><p> </p><p>“You're fucking useless, kid ! Your pretty toys not sharp enough ?”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri blushes in embarrassment. She could have at least gotten her daggers out, she thinks. But she's still frozen and only manages to squeak weakly. </p><p> </p><p>“If you want to live, shithead,” the witcher growls at the bandit, “You better let her go !”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not stupid, mutant,” the man sneers, “If I let her go, what will stop you from killing me ?”</p><p> </p><p>“My word.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher and the bandit glare at each other over Ciri's head and she helds her breath, praying for the man to let her go. She feels him sigh in defeat into her hair, before he lets her go and steps back with his arms raised. Letho strides forward angrily and hits him violently on the head. The bandit falls to the ground unconscious.</p><p> </p><p>“You okay, kid ?”, Letho grunts at her.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm fine. Thank you,” Ciri whispers.</p><p> </p><p>“Good. We'll work on your reactions to danger next, because freezing is just shitty and your blades aren't just here to be pretty. Now get your fucking salves out while I search this son of a bitch.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri nods at him and runs to Roach to get her healing paste out.</p><p> </p><p>“Bandages, thread and needle are in my left saddlebag,” Letho bellows after her.</p><p> </p><p>She rummages through the witcher's bag too and goes back to him with her hastily put together healing kit. And that is how she learns how to sew stitches. It's really disgusting, she thinks, and she's rather proud of herself when she manages to restrain herself from throwing up until after they are done with the bandages.</p><p> </p><p>Letho then just plops down in the middle of the road and starts to clean his bloody sword. Ciri packs her salves and the sewing kit away and brings the horses to the witcher.</p><p> </p><p>“Hum... We're not leaving ?”, she wonders, puzzled.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” the witcher grunts and motions for her to take a seat.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri sits down next to Letho with a frown on her face, and occupies herself by looking at the clouds. Finally the unconscious bandit stirs and wakes up slowly. Ciri wonders what the witcher wants to do with him.</p><p> </p><p>Letho gets up, shakes the man until he's wide awake and squeaking in fright, and beckons Ciri closer. He positions the man behind her, threatens him with a painful death if he so much as think about harming her, and orders him to hold her. The man is trembling, all traces of his snark gone, but complies when the witcher growls threateningly at him. Ciri is puzzled.</p><p> </p><p>“Good,” Letho says when they are in position, “Now Fiona, you're not strong enough to break his hold but you have other options. If you're sneaky enough, you can stab him in the thigh, hurts like a bitch, kills a man in a few seconds.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher then makes a weird hand gesture and Ciri gapes at him, because it looks like he wants her to practice her stabbing on the bandit newly turned into a training dummy.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not going to stab him !”, Ciri exclaims indignantly, “He's unarmed !”</p><p> </p><p>She hears the bandit whimper behind her but he doesn't move, probably because Letho turns his glare on him.</p><p> </p><p>“Then practice without the damn dagger. Or keep it sheathed ! But practice because you're not freezing the next time it happens !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri frowns but nods determinedly. She takes hold of the sheathed dagger hidden in her sleeve, works the straps connecting it to her arm loose and stabs the bandit in the thigh with it. The man actually whimpers and bends down to massage his thigh.</p><p> </p><p>“You wimp, get back in position,” Letho growls and motions for Ciri to try again.</p><p> </p><p>She places her dagger in her sleeve again, without strapping it, and practices the movements several times until Letho is satisfied.</p><p> </p><p>“Good. If he doesn't wear armor, you can aim for the ribs too.”</p><p> </p><p>He comes closer, tugs the bandit's shirt up and shows her where to aim, between two ribs, and makes her practice.</p><p> </p><p>“Harder !”, he orders after her first try makes the bandit release her with a pained moan.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri doesn't know if her strikes are that strong or if he's faking it, and then remembers that he held her hostage before and would have probably slit her throat without a second thought if Letho hadn't intervened. She strikes harder. The man lets her go and doubles over.</p><p> </p><p>“That was a bit too high,” Letho comments, “Again.”</p><p> </p><p>And the bandit pleads with the witcher but takes his place behind her back again. She hears him sniffling in her ear and mumbling under his breath and it's a weird sensation. She tries to stifle the compassion that she's starting to feel, because the man probably deserves what is happening to him, and she is pretty sure that Letho won't kill him. The witcher isn't a heartless monster.</p><p> </p><p>“Good,” he tells her after her fifth try, “Now put your dagger away. What do you do if you're unarmed ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know,” Ciri mumbles, “You said that he's stronger than me !”</p><p> </p><p>“Stronger he is,” Letho agrees and continues with a bloodthirsty smile that makes the bandit whimper again, “But you can still bend his fingers ! Go on, try !”</p><p> </p><p>The bandit lets her go at the first brush of her fingers against his, and Letho threatens to castrate him if he doesn't stay still. He reluctantly takes his position back and Ciri is almost sure that the man is regretting all of his life's choices.</p><p> </p><p>On her first try, she doesn't apply enough force. She tries again and actually breaks the bandit's finger on her second attempt. She looks at Letho with horror when he congratulates her.</p><p> </p><p>“That was well done. Oh, don't look at me like that, at least you know what it takes to break a man's finger now !”</p><p> </p><p>He comes up near them and sets the man's finger with an audible crunch that turns Ciri's stomach. He then makes them take their position again. The bandit is openly crying now. Letho makes her practice her crushing toes skills next, and ends the lesson with what he considers to be a foolproof way of hurting a man.</p><p> </p><p>“Aim for the crotch,” he says, “A man will always protect his crotch, and if you hit hard enough, he'll bend over and you'll be able to hit his neck or slit his throat as he goes down. Go on, try it !”</p><p> </p><p>She finds out that she can't reach the man's crotch with her heel if her back is to his chest, and Letho tells her to switch to her elbow. It's easier and the witcher tells her that it works well with a knife in hand too. She doesn't get her dagger out though after hearing the desperate moan the bandit lets out.</p><p> </p><p>Letho has her practice her elbowing three times before he's satisfied and the bandit is openly crying at her feet by that time. The witcher makes him get up again though, and then orders her to try to wiggle out of his grip to turn around to be able to <em>knee</em> him in the crotch.</p><p> </p><p>The bandit starts sobbing. It takes her a while to get it done but when she understands that combining bending fingers, crushing toes and elbowing ribs works very well, she becomes unstoppable.</p><p> </p><p>After her sixth successful try at kneeing, the bandit, who is weeping loudly on the ground, refuses to get up and promises them that he won't ever ever ever again attack another person. Ciri feels a little bad for him. Letho certainly doesn't and kicks him in the ribs before ordering her in the saddle. They leave the man behind them without looking back.</p><p> </p><p>With no poor soul to act as a training dummy, Letho develops the new habit of coming up behind Ciri quietly at unexpected moments and of grabbing her tightly. Ciri then has to work free of his grip.</p><p> </p><p>She sticks to knives the first three days, and Letho grunts appreciatively at her when her sheathed dagger connects with his thigh, but she quickly gets annoyed by the game. So she switches to unarmed technics and rams her elbow violently against the witcher's crotch. And to her shock and great delight, he actually lets her go and bends over groaning.</p><p> </p><p>He tries this game three more times and then he abruptly stops. Ciri smiles sweetly at him the first time she catches him hesitating about grabbing her, and grinds her heel deliberatly into the ground. Letho then hums at her, ruffles her hair and backs off. Ciri's weirdly proud of herself.</p><p>
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</p><hr/><p>
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</p><p>Thus Ciri spends three weeks running in circles in south Redania with Letho and they don't hear of or find Jaskier. The witcher starts grumbling about the bard two weeks into their journey and decides to head to Tretogor.</p><p>
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</p><p>On the way, they happen upon several harvest festivals but Letho refuses to stay, and drags her away before she can lose herself in the crowds. She still annoys him enough that he buys her an apple and then a pear pie, and Ciri savors them slowly. She even gives the witcher a slice of each, and can see him eat them slowly as if to make them last longer.</p><p> </p><p>And when they meet another witcher, well she resigns herself to be passed around again even before the two men start their conversation. They are camping next to a river, and eating deer because Letho has had enough of rabbits lately, when she sees the witcher perk up. He slowly puts his meat down on a flat stone, unsheathes one of his swords and gets up. Ciri looks left and right and wonders what spooked him when a voice rises from behind her back.</p><p> </p><p>"Hello there."</p><p> </p><p>Ciri shrieks, throws her elbow hard behind her and feels it connect with the side of a nose. She then scrambles up and tries to get to Letho. But she is being prevented from running to him by the hard grip the man behind her has on her arm.</p><p> </p><p>"That wasn't very polite !"</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, for fuck's sake," Letho grumbles, "Let the girl go, asshole, and I might be willing to share our dinner with you."</p><p> </p><p>"Deal !", is the stanger's cheerful reply.</p><p> </p><p>The man finally lets her go and steps closer to the fire. He's a witcher, she realizes, a Cat like Aiden according to his medallion. He plops down next to the fire, at a good distance from Letho, and plucks a big piece of meat from the deer roasting over the fire. He sighs contendedly and reclines back on one of his elbows.</p><p> </p><p>"So, who's the kid ?", he asks around a mouthful.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri grimaces at him because <em>that</em> is just disgusting, he's got no manners, she decides. She shuffles her bedroll closer to Letho and sits back down with a huff. She then picks an apple from the pile between her and the Viper and nibbles on it while the two witchers engage in a glaring contest.</p><p> </p><p>"She's the fucking bard's bastard daughter," Letho finally grumbles before helping himself to another serving.</p><p> </p><p>"Really ?", the Cat asks excitedly, "How did <em>you</em> end up with her ?"</p><p> </p><p>"I rescued her", he says gruffly, "Coën left her with the lovebirds."</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, harsh," the Cat whistles, "What did you do to him, kid ? Shaved his beloved beard ?"</p><p> </p><p>"Aiden and Lambert stole me from Coën," she says, affronted because she didn't do anything to the Griffin, "And I'm Fiona by the way, not "kid". What's your name ?"</p><p> </p><p>"I'm Del, school of the Cat. I saw your father two months ago," he says and Ciri and Letho perk up, "He told us that he was headed to Poviss. Why aren't you with him ? And where's you freaking mother ?"</p><p> </p><p>Ciri glares at him and crosses her arms over her chest and Letho answers in her stead.</p><p> </p><p>"She's from Cintra," he says like it explains everything, and maybe it does.</p><p> </p><p>"I'm not !"</p><p> </p><p>"Someone's gotten her out of this clusterfuck of a country and now we're just trying to hand her back to her fucking father. And I didn't sign up to go to fucking <em>Poviss</em> so you can take her from now on."</p><p> </p><p>"What ?", Del asks and chews loudly in the silence, "You're serious ? I'm not going to fucking Poviss either. I'm just coming down from Caingorn, I'm not going back north ! You run after the bard, she's your ward !"</p><p> </p><p>"At this point, she migh as well be all of the witchers' ward," Letho grumbles, "And it's your turn on the babysitting roster !"</p><p> </p><p>"I didn't sign anything," Del argues and Ciri smiles behind her hands because the Cat is getting worked up and tiny bits of meat go flying everywhere when he flails his arms, "You took her, you take care of her. Or dump her in a ditch or something, not like the bard can really do anything to us..."</p><p> </p><p>Letho just raises one of his eyebrows at the last affirmation and Del grimaces.</p><p> </p><p>"Alright, he might be able to organize a mob to hunt us down... Maybe ? Probably ? Oh, stop with your judgemental attitude. Fine, yes, he could totally precipitate our extinction if he wanted to, but that still doesn't mean that I'm going to lug the kid all around the continent, I've got better things to do... What ? I do !"</p><p> </p><p>And when Ciri looks at Letho, the Viper is smirking and watching the Cat work himself into a frenzy. She smiles and watches the show with attention too.</p><p>
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</p><p>“And you're used to her by now, surely you understand that she's better off with you. Do you want her to travel with a Cat ? Not that a Viper is better, but, well... We're not really known for our level-headedness !”</p><p> </p><p>Letho just shrugs and continues to eat.</p><p> </p><p>“And how do I go up to Poviss before winter anyway ? And then ? Huh, do you think about the after ? How do I find the damn bard ? He doesn't even like me, us !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher ends his sentence in a whine and Letho growls at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, fine, yes, I know that he doesn't really like you either, but that's your own fault,” the Cat rants and points his finger accusingly at the Viper.</p><p> </p><p>“On the other hand, if I can give him his daughter back, I can maybe extort a payment out of Jaskier... Mmm, how much would he be willing to pay for you, you reckon ?”, he asks Ciri.</p><p> </p><p>She just looks at him aghast and throws her apple core at him. He catches it easily and throws it to the horses who fight to reach it first. Roach wins and Ciri smiles at the mare.</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck, you're rude, kid ! Who taught you your freaking manners ? They did a good job at that at least, your throwing needs to improve though and the damn lummox sitting next to you won't be of any help... Oh fine, Letho, I'll take her north but you owe me !”</p><p> </p><p>“In your dreams,” the Viper growls but looks weirdly satisfied.</p><p> </p><p>“And you, kid,”</p><p> </p><p>“Fiona !”, she interrupts him.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, you, you better be on your best behaviour or I... I... Fuck, Letho how do you get her to listen to you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I order her around, she mostly obeys without complaints,” he says and shrugs.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, well, that's nice. Good. We leave at dawn, kid, so you better catch up on your beauty sleep while you still can !”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri rolls her eyes at him, flips him off, goes to the river to freshen up a bit and flops down on her bedroll when she comes back. In the meantime, the witchers have moved towards the edge of a clump of trees and as she watches them, she gets the distinct impression that Letho is threatening the Cat. She smiles at the display and goes to sleep quickly.</p><p> </p><p>In the morning Letho shakes her up, gives her a pear for breakfast and helps her take the camp down under the Cat's watchful gaze. Ciri then goes to Roach and saddles her while the witchers share a last hushed conversation together.</p><p> </p><p>When she comes back, Letho is gripping Del's shoulder tightly and the Cat looks a bit white in the face. The Viper lets him go when he sees her approaching and ruffles her hair. She hugs him and he freezes completely under her touch. She takes pity on him a few seconds later, pats his chest fondly and lets him go.</p><p> </p><p>“You don't have a horse ?”, she asks Del when she turns towards him.</p><p> </p><p>“Nope. Travelling on foot.”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri sighs because it's going to be a long journey to reach Poviss on foot. She gets on Roach's back and waves at Letho as they go north.</p><p> </p><p>“Say hello to Auckes for me when you next see him !”, she shouts at him, “And tell him that I definitely got better at stealing !”</p><p> </p><p>She sees him nod and then glare at Del's back. She smiles and urges Roach to go faster. When the Cat starts to curse and shouts after her to <em>slow the fuck down, you harpy</em>, she begins to laugh and prays for a quick and uneventful journey at the end of which she would hopefully find Jaskier. Hoping doesn't hurt, she muses and lets Roach slow down slowly for the poor witcher to catch up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Winter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Ciri is happily surprised to find out that Del is actually a pleasant travel companion. He keeps up with Roach easily, he's chatty, he helps her cook and even possesses a small collection of spices that she vows to copy, he encourages her stealing and offers good advice on her knife throwing skills.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>He deems her capacity at reaching a motionless target perfect a week after they meet, and she perks up under the compliment. He makes her aim at live targets next and she catches her first rabbit under his supervision. She finds that evening meal tastier than usual, and she sleeps peacefully with a full belly after her success.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>However their progress is slow, and Del starts to grumble about having to treck to <em>fucking Poviss</em> two days after their departure. He finally decides to seek out a sorceress that he knows lives nearby, and they take a shortcut via portal.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>As soon as she sets foot in Poviss, Ciri immediatly wants to go back to Redania because it's so cold. In Redania, summer is fading away and autumn is setting in slowly, but in Poviss Ciri feels like she can see winter preparing itself to replace autumn at the earliest convenience.</p><p> </p><p>And as Poviss is cold and mostly empty, Ciri annoys Del into renting a room at every inn they come across. The witcher always glares at her when she proposes it and jingles his purse dramatically, but they do actually sleep indoors at least three days a week.</p><p> </p><p>When they have to stay outside, because they're on a tight budget or they get thrown out of establishments or they simply are too far away from towns, Ciri sleeps huddled between Roach and Del. She usually has a hard time going to sleep and gets nightmares frequently again.</p><p> </p><p>Her nightmares had abated in the months she spent with the witchers, and she was glad for it because the men weren't well equiped to deal with them. Most of them would at least wake her up before she started screaming and then pat her awkwardly on the head or the shoulder. But some, Lambert or Letho, usually disappeared in a hurry once she was awake and came back when she was done crying.</p><p> </p><p>Luckily for her, Del is more like Aiden or Coën, who would brew her some tea and offer her their laps or chests to sniffle on. Del isn't quite there yet, but as he sleeps beside her, he notices her nightmares before they become unmanageable and wakes her up quickly.</p><p> </p><p>If Ciri can't get back to sleep, the witcher would stock up the fire, brew her some tea, offer her his shoulder to hold onto - not cry though, he doesn't like crying - or if she feels restless, he'd give her a pile of daggers to sharpen and meditate next to her until she'd feel ready to go back to sleep. She still misses Geralt though, his hugs were the best.</p><p> </p><p>So they traipse around Poviss, Ciri acquires some new purses that disappear quickly because a room's price gets more and more expensive as winter approaches, a pair of woolen pants that keep her warm and a heavy blanket that soon becomes her favorite object. And through everything, they still don't find Jaskier. </p><p> </p><p>After three long weeks in Poviss, Del decides to head to Kovir, because it really looks like Jaskier never even set foot in the country. Kovir is much of the same but they at least manage to hear about the bard in Pont Vanis.</p><p> </p><p>The only problem is that the people they meet assure them that Jaskier passed through in spring, and went east and not west. When Del finally understands that the bard lied to the Cats when they last saw him, he curses so loudly that Ciri can see some townspeople running home and closing their doors and windows in a hurry.</p><p> </p><p>After that, they are at a loss about what to do. They could head to Caingorn, Del explains, but it would take them at least a month to get to the point where he last saw Jaskier. And then they still would have to track him in Redania, and he has no idea about where the bard could want to spend his winter.</p><p> </p><p>“Couldn't he be in Tretogor ?”, Ciri asks an evening as she is shivering next to the fire, “Didn't you say that he liked royal courts and needed a patron ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Mm,” the witcher hums, “You may be on to something, kid. We'll try Tretogor then. But we're finding another mage, I'm not trekking all the way south !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>It only takes them a few days to find a mage, who sends them at the gates of the Redanian capital against a hefty sum. As soon as they step out though, they are surrounded by four guards who chase after Del when they notice that he is a witcher.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Oh crap !”, the witcher exclaims and dodges a sword, “Right, yes, I forgot that we wouldn't be welcome here for a while, shit...”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>Del dodges the guards efficiently and then Ciri sees him do a sommersault over a man. In the next few seconds two guards are unconscious on the ground, and the other two join them a few minutes later. Del wipes his hands on his trousers, rummages through the guards pockets and confiscates their purses.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Okay, Fiona, it's not really a good idea for me to go into town right now.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Why ?”, she asks suspiciously and eyes the unconscious guards warily, at least they don't seem dead.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Because. And don't bother asking for more, I won't tell you ! So you go in, find a tavern, ask about Jaskier and I'll wait for you two leagues south.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“You're leaving me !”, she accuses him loudly and they draw stares.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“I'm not,” he hisses at her, “And keep your voice down ! You come back to me whether Jaskier's here or not. I'll find a way to sneak you into the palace if he is at court and if he's not, well we'll have to find a nice place to spend the winter because I'm not running after a damn bard in the snow !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“I don't believe you ! You just want to get rid of me !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Oh, sweet Melitele, what did I ever do to convince you that I would abandon you in the first town we'd come across ?”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“I've seen your purse !”, Ciri exclaims, “You're broke ! You can't take care of me during all the winter.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>The witcher rolls his eyes at her and manhandles her in the saddle.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“You're ridiculous ! Now go in the fucking town and find me that information. I'll wait for you !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>Del gives Roach's rear a slap and the mare trots up through the now unguarded gates of the city. She enters Tretogor without trouble but with a stomach tying itself in knots. She stops at the first tavern she sees, ties Roach to a post, takes her saddlebag with her and enters the establishment warily.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>It's not an upscale tavern, she finds out. The patrons are dirty, loud and drunk, the owner has black teeth and sneers at her and Ciri runs back outside without even asking about Jaskier. She takes Roach's reins in her hands and leads the mare further into the city. When they reach the part of the town that sports clean buildings with shutters and readable signs, she tries again.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>She enters another tavern and is immediately accosted by a girl, who is only a few years older than her.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“What can we do for you, miss ? Your parents are still outside ?”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Err, yes,” she says because it didn't occur to her that the fact that she is alone would be seen as weird, “I or rather my father wants to know if you know if the bard Jaskier is wintering in Tretogor this year.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Mm,” the girl hums and leads her to the bar where she pours Ciri a drink without asking, “I don't think so, it's been a few years since we last saw him. It's a pity, he's really good ! I've seen him perform four years ago, it was wonderful !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Oh,” Ciri says, disappointed and finishes her glass before answering, “That's a shame. Oh, no, stop please, there's no need for you to fill my glass again !”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>The girl doesn't listen and Ciri ends up gulping down another glass of some cider, she thinks, while the serving girl continues to talk. Ciri excuses herself as soon as she finishes her second drink, pays the girl and runs out of the tavern.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>She asks two more passerby in the streets but they sadly confirm the girl's tale. Ciri is completely dejected as she makes her way out of town, and is already imagining spending a winter in a cave freezing, when Del finds her again.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“So is he here ?”, the witcher asks excitedly.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“You didn't leave.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“I told you I wouldn't. I'm a <em>responsible</em> caretaker, you know. And Letho would probably geld me if he knew that I abandonned you. That Viper can be oddly obstinate about certain things.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Thank you. For staying,” Ciri mumbles.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“You're welcome,” Del says cheerfully, “So, Jaskier ?”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Isn't here,” Ciri says and gets down from Roach to flop dramatically on the ground, “What do we do now ? Winter isn't here yet but it's colder already, and I don't think that we have enough coin to pay for shelter for the whole season. And you said that we probably won't find Jaskier before winter truly sets in and...”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Hey, breathe,” Del interrupts her and sits down next to her, “Just calm down. Take a deep breath.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>Del takes her right hand and places it over his chest and Ciri copies his breathing pattern. She calms down fairly quickly, blushes and apologizes to the witcher.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>“Don't worry,” he says and ruffles her hair, “Listen, I or rather the school of the Cat, we possess an... establishment near Houtborg in northern Temeria. For the last few years, we usually spent our winters there. I'll take you with me, we'll spend a comfortable winter together, and come spring we'll start to look for your father again. Okay ?”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>Ciri nods and lets herself be tugged to her feet. She decides to walk alongside Del for the rest of the day and wonders what type of establishment the Cats possess. Maybe an inn, she muses, to be able to accommodate the whole school.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>It takes them two weeks to reach Houtborg and when one evening they finally arrive at a sturdy building on the outskirts of a small town, Ciri is desperatly longing for a hot bath. Del leads her to the stables near the house, and they take care of Roach in companionable silence.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Del then leads her to the front door and knocks. Ciri hears raised voices inside and hurried footsteps before a man opens the door.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh, Del, darling, you're back !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Del lets himself be tugged into an embrace that turns into a very thorough kiss, and Ciri watches on with horror on her face because she doesn't want to spend months with mushy people, Aiden and Lambert traumatized her enough, thank you very much.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>But she is forced to reevaluate her opinion when she glances inside the building. A great fire is burning in the hearth, heavy curtains hang on the walls, there's a scantily clad woman playing the lute in front of the fire and men drinking, whistling and grabbing people as they pass between tables. Ciri kicks Del in the shins, hard, and forces him to let go of the man.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You brought me to a brothel !”, she hisses at him angrily.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Well, kinda,” he says sheepishly and scratches his head, “But we do own it !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fuck, is that a kid ?”, the man asks angrily, “Del, what the hell ? You know my rules, I'm not taking customers under the age of fifteen and I don't want children working for me !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“She's not a customer or a prospective employee,” the witcher grumbles and rubs at his chest where the man pinched him in anger, “She's the bard's, Jaskier's, daughter. We couldn't find him so she needs a safe place to stay for the winter.”</p><p> </p><p>“Fucking close the door !”, a man bellows at them and Del drags Ciri into the brothel and closes the door behind them.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fuck,” the man says and tugs them further into the house, “We can't keep kids here, Del. It's not a children friendly place !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They get up some stairs and enter what looks like an office. The man, who still hasn't introduced himself, sits on the edge of the desk and pinches the bridge of his nose. Del stands before him with his arms crossed.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Well, I can't throw her out either. She's our responsibility until we find her freaking father or another witcher to act as babysitter.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And did you think about what Mal will have to say ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't worry about Mal, he's got a soft spot for the bard so he'll be fine with the kid.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Mal ? A soft spot ? If you say so,” he snorts and then approaches Ciri, “Right, nice to meet you, I'm Seyn. I manage this place for the witchers.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He extends his hand towards her and Ciri shakes it warily.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fiona. I'm sorry to impose.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“It's not your fault, darling. Come on, follow me. We'll find you a nice secluded place to stay. Mal's room should do it. He can share with Del when he comes back,” Seyn announces with a mean smile for the hovering witcher who grimaces at the man.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“The Caravan still hasn't arrived ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“No,” says Seyn and he leads them towards the second floor, “Pierre sent word that they needed to take care of a time sensitive contract in Ellander but they should arrive in a few days.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Good”, Del nods.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Here, sweetheart,” Seyn then adresses her as they stop before a sturdy door, “You won't be bothered here. Lock the door at night anyway, don't come down in the evenings,” he warns her and opens the door, “And stay away from the customers. You'll have to wait for a bath, we usually draw them in the mornings. Are you hungry ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yes, please.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Okay, I'll send one of the girls with some food for you. Come on, get in !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri steps into the room and looks longingly at the furs on the bed. She's disappointed to see that the room doesn't have a private hearth, but it seems comfortable enough with a small window covered by a heavy curtain, a desk and a chair, two candles, a wardrobe where she can store her belongings and a clean chamberpot lying next to the fur-covered bed.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Do you need something else ?”, Seyn asks her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“No, thank you,” Ciri whispers as she deposits her saddlebag on the desk.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Good. Then have a good evening, someone will be by with food soon enough and we'll wake you up tomorrow for breakfast. And then you'll be able to take a bath. Now, excuse me but I have urgent business to discuss with this scoundrel !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri watches Seyn pinch Del's ear and the man drags the witcher away by it. She wonders if they really have business to discuss or if that was an euphemism. She closes the door behind the two men and goes to the bed. She jumps on it and is surprised to realize that the matress is quite comfortable. And then she hears loud moans coming from the room below hers and she blushes fiercely in the darkness.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She gets up to inspect the window and when the moans are joined by the sound of skin slapping on skin and of a bed banging against a wall, she just can't help the laugh that escapes her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She sits down on the floor and bangs her head slowly on her bent knees while she giggles, because she's going to spend her winter in a <em>brothel</em> and she can just imagine Geralt's horrified face were he to hear about it. It's going to be an interesting winter at the very least, she decides and starts to store her belongings in the wardrobe.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Ciri learns that the Cat witchers travel in a Caravan four days after she arrived. She's in the kitchen, sitting next to the fire with a book about accounting, because it's the only one Seyn said was even remotely kid-friendly in the brothel, when she hears a great ruckus outside. She peers through the window and spots several carts and horses and men busying themselves next to the stables.</p><p> </p><p>She's itching to go outside but she can't, because the kitchen's only door leads to the common room, from where she's banned unless accompanied. She sighs and gets back next to the fire. She's disturbed in her reading not long after that, when she hears loud voices and heavy footsteps in the common room.</p><p> </p><p>She hears the newcomers approach and next thing she knows, the kitchen's door is kicked open and a witcher strides in. He's got two heavy bags in his arms and stops on his way to the pantry when he spots her.</p><p> </p><p>“Uh,” he says and then bellows to the others, “Why is there a fucking kid in the kitchen ? She one of yours ? One of ours ?”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri only has to wait a few seconds before Seyn comes running into the room and shoos the witcher away to the pantry.</p><p> </p><p>“Come on, Fiona, there's someone you need to meet !”</p><p> </p><p>He urges her to get up and pushes her into the common room, which is weirdly empty. He then leads her outside and Ciri longs for her forgotten cloack. Seyn steers her towards the witcher who is shouting loudly at Del. </p><p> </p><p>“Mal !”, Seyn interrupts the scolding and Del winks at her behind the new witcher's back.</p><p> </p><p>“What ?”, he snarls at Seyn who doesn't step back but tightens his hand on Ciri's shoulder so that she can't run away.</p><p> </p><p>“Meet Fiona, your new ward !”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher stares stupidly at Ciri and she sticks her tongue out at him. </p><p> </p><p>“Fiona, that's Mal, the leader of the Cats' Caravan.”</p><p> </p><p>“What the fuck, whore ? We don't need a kid running around !”</p><p> </p><p>“For the hundreth time, I've got a name, witcher,” Seyn spits coldly, “And Del brought her. You can iron out the details with him.”</p><p> </p><p>Seyn then turns around and leads her back inside.</p><p> </p><p>“He wasn't very nice,” Ciri comments and follows Seyn when he steers her towards her room.</p><p> </p><p>“He's never been very nice to me,” Seyn confesses with a shrug, “But he's never been completely awful either, so it's alright I suppose. Don't worry, he'll probably warm up to you soon enough, and I won't let him throw you out.”</p><p> </p><p>“Can you even stand up to him ? Isn't that too dangerous ?”, Ciri asks, frowning, “I don't want you to get in trouble on my behalf.”</p><p> </p><p>“Don't worry,” he says and ruffles her hair, “The Cats may own the establishment but I'm in charge here. And I've still got some tricks up my sleeves.”</p><p> </p><p>He leaves Ciri in her room and, as the book is rather boring, she picks up one of her daggers and starts to throw it at the wooden target Del gifted her yesterday. Her aim is still true and she tries to throw her knives with her left hand instead of the right. She grimaces when the blade gets stuck into the wardrobe and starts again.</p><p> </p><p>She's getting frustrated because her left hand won't cooperate with her, when the room's door is violently thrown open and she comes face to face with an irate Mal.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh great,” he snarls and stays in the corridor to scream, “Why is the fucking kid in my room ?”</p><p> </p><p>“It's her room for the winter !”, Ciri hears Seyn bellow back from downstairs, “You're sharing with Del !”</p><p> </p><p>“Like hell am I !”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, you are,” Seyn confirms when he appears, out of breath, in the corridor too.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri does a double take when she sees him, because his lips look like they were bitten, the laces of his shirt are open and his trousers are hanging a bit too low on his hips. She quickly averts her eyes and stares at the ceiling. </p><p> </p><p>“Is that revenge for all the time I called you a whore ?”, Mal asks suspiciously.</p><p> </p><p>“I wouldn't be so petty !”, Seyn smirks at him and tugs him away.</p><p> </p><p>“But he snores !”, she hears the witcher whine before the door closes and she lets out a laugh. She then gets her whetstone out of the wardrobe to start to sharpen her blades until it's time for dinner.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Two more witchers trickle in in the next week, and then Ciri has to resolve herself to spend her winter with ten witchers and fifteen whores. It's not something she ever imagined but well, she's got a roof over her head and three meals a day so she can't really complain.</p><p> </p><p>She sets in easily enough. The whores are nice and a woman named Pell even teaches her how to make a tincture to dye her hair brown. She said that she couldn't bear her habit of smearing mud in her hair anymore and offered to help her one morning while they bathed. The woman doesn't ask her why she does it, and Ciri doesn't offer an explanation but she's grateful nonetheless.</p><p> </p><p>She spends her days either in the stables or in the kitchen next to the fire and watches the witchers come and go. They're oddly busy and she badgers Mal one day until he lets her tag along on his tasks. She gets to climb up on the roof, which the witchers are repairing, and in the afternoon Mal hands her a shovel and she helps him dig a new trench to fill with all their waste through the winter.</p><p> </p><p>After that day, Mal starts to give her more tasks and Ciri usually ends up taking care of the horses or the fowl and mucking out the stables with Del or preparing stew with Zorn. And then he stops giving her special tasks and she gets roped into using the normal way of deciding who gets to do what. And that is the truly awful <em>not it</em> game at the evening table.</p><p> </p><p>Once a week, Seyn, who's usually the only prostitute to share his meals with the witchers, albeit sitting in one of their laps, will call out tasks at random. The last one to shout <em>not it</em> will get the dubious honor of taking care of said task for the week.</p><p> </p><p>It takes Ciri two weeks to become used to it, but after she spends that time on chamberpot duty, well she gets better at it fast. She watches Seyn attentively all through dinner, doesn't hesitate to elbow her neighbours and usually manages to acquire the goat and chicken feeding, the stables or the cooking tasks. </p><p> </p><p>She gets the laundry once, which turns out to be fairly disgusting in a brothel, because Jayn crushes her toes under the table and she retaliates by distracting him and stealing his fork when the next task is announced. He ends up on chamberpot duty so she feels vindicated enough.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>When she's not doing tasks, Ciri is avoiding the common room, which despite the witchers' presence still houses clients, and working on her throwing knives skills. Del also starts to teach her some moves after he catches her looking longingly out of the kitchen's window one afternoon. He then proceeds to somersault outside through the window and Ciri squeals in delight when she sees the display.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She pesters him for two days before he agrees to teach her. To say that the process ends up being painful would be an understatement. Ciri spends two weeks collecting bruises while she works on improving her somersault. Jayn joins in the lessons when he sees her crash roughly on the frozen ground one day.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri usually limps inside again in the evenings and huddles close to the fire until dinner is served. She could stop, she knows, but she's too stubborn to give up and is decided to continue despite the pain.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Jayn then forbids her to throw herself out of the window after she almost breaks her nose, and has her work on her balance first. He forces her to do cartwheels, to learn how to roll effortlessly, to climb the few trees growing in the backyard and makes her hop around on one foot long enough for Ciri to develop a sweat.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>When he deems her ready, he gives her back to Del who teaches her about jumping, momentum and landing carefully. Her first attempts after her training look like her first clumsy tries and she despairs. She collects new bruises and watches Seyn scold the two witchers when she comes back with her face black and blue one evening.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>So Del has her try combining running, jumping, cartwheeling and rolling outside on the ground, and when he is satisfied, he lets her brave the kitchen's window again. It takes her three days to manage her first perfect somersault and she lands painlessly in a roll outside. She celebrates her victory with a dance in the evening.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She then spends the rest of the winter somersaulting out of the kitchen's window at least five times a day. She sometimes regrets it, especially when she lands in the snow, but she's so proud of her new skill that she can't stop herself and perseveres. After all, if she doesn't take care of it, soon she'll not be able to do it anymore. And after all the trouble she got through to learn how to do it, she's not ready to let her skill rust.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And between having fun and working, she finds out that the winter passes quickly. She's almost surprised to see the snow slowly start to melt and some flowers start to grow again. With spring coming back, Mal starts to get restless and pesters the other witchers to check the carts and the horses. Seyn asks the witchers to perform some last minute reparations, and Mal grumbles at the man before setting one of the Cats to the task.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri prepares herself to leave too. She's supposed to head out to Redania with Jayn, who lost the <em>not it </em>game for her custody, as soon as the Caravan will depart. The witcher grumbles and scowls at her but Seyn assures her not to take it personally, because they are grumpy every year when they have to leave. He explains with a smile that they get used to the comfort, and are mostly loathe to have to give it up even if they are also longing for the open roads again.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And then, a day before they are set to depart, a new man stumbles into the brothel. Ciri learns that he is a witcher at dinner that night, a Viper looking for shelter, and watches him scarf down his meal before disappearing upstairs with one of the women. She has a weird feeling about it.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri's woken up by Mal's screaming the next morning. Over the winter's course that sound became very familiar to her, and she runs down the stairs to see what is happening. She finds the Cats in the courtyard harnessing horses, checking their carts and running around in a frenzy.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She goes up to Mal and stops beside him. She looks at the chaos before her, at neighing horses and at the bags being loaded into the carts and winces when Zorn's and Del's horses run into each other.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Mal screams, “You look like toddlers learning how to lead horses instead of competent witchers, you incompetent assholes ! Zorn, go left, Del don't move ! And where the fuck is Pierre ? Those beans won't load themselves !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>At this precise moment, Pierre comes out of the brothel, empty handed and with a dishevelled Seyn in tow, and Mal marches up to them with an impressive scowl on his face. Ciri looks out for Jayn and finds him near the stables. She goes up to him and gets his attention by pulling on his shirt sleeve.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Are we heading out with them after all ?”, she asks him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“What ?”, he wonders and then seems to take her in for the first time that morning, “What are you doing up ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You said that we would leave at the same time as the Caravan... and well, they are departing.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh, no, I'm leaving with the others. You're staying with Serrit.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Serrit ?”, she asks, puzzled.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Viper witcher. The one who arrived yesterday. Don't worry, everything's been arranged,” Jayn says and ruffles her hair before going into the stables to fetch the last horse.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“What ? When ? Nobody told me anything !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yesterday, at dinner. You were there, kid !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yeah, I was. And nobody spoke about me or the Viper.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Of course we did. We had another round of <em>not it </em>after you went to bed. Serrit lost,” he explains and shrugs.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Serrit went upstairs before I did. He couldn't have participated !”, she points out sensibly.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“He still was in the building and as he didn't answer, he lost. So he can take you now. I'd tell him to take you up north to Redania if I were you. Chances are your father's there.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Jayn then asks her to step out of his way, and she goes back to the courtyard where the Caravan is starting to look like an organized convoy. Mal has stopped screaming and Seyn's locked in a tight embrace with Pierre <em>and</em> Wyff and Ciri averts her eyes and goes to the leader. She shadows Mal until they are all ready to depart and thanks the Cat for agreeing to shelter her for the winter.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Huh,” he mutters, “Didn't really have a choice. Try to stay out of trouble, kid.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She then says her goodbyes to all the other witchers, hugs Del extra hard and goes back to Seyn's side to watch the Caravan depart. When they finally disappear round a bend in the road, Seyn tugs Ciri back inside and Pell serves her breakfast. The Viper isn't up yet and Ciri packs her bags and goes back to the kitchen to wait for him. It takes him two hours to finally appear.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>When he comes down, Serrit goes to the kitchen's fire, serves himself a large bowl of soup as breakfast and sits at the table. He eats quickly, and Ciri moves from her place at the head of the table to a seat in front of the witcher, when it looks like he is finishing his bowl. She props her chin on the back of her hands and smiles at the Viper. He watches her warily and his eyes widen after a few seconds.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“ Oh, crap,” he exclaims, “You're Jaskier's daughter, right ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yep !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm the babysitter now, aren't I ?”, he groans.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm afraid so,” Ciri says with a smirk, “The Cats all left.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fucking Cats,” he swears, “I'll get them back for that !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Serrit then gets up, leaves his dishes in the sink, hefts his belongings and heads to the common room. She watches him move and wonders if she's supposed to follow him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You coming, kid ? I don't have all day and we've got a long journey ahead of us !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri smiles and runs after him. She saddles Roach, checks one last time that she didn't forget anything and says goodbyes to the whores. Seyn hugs her tight and makes her promise to visit soon, Pell gives her a pot that contains her tincture and Ciri is a little bit sad to leave. She quite liked this winter, as unusual as it was. She goes up in the saddle and leaves the brothel waving at her hosts. She hopes that she'll be able to meet them again one day.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt spends his year literally running after Jaskier. He goes to Oxenfurt, then to Novigrad, then he has to cross all of Kovir. He ends up in Gelibol in late autumn and he hasn't yet found the bard or his child. He has a feeling that he'll find Jaskier in Lettenhove. He knows that the bard likes to visit his family home from time to time, and he'll have taken Ciri somewhere safe if he found her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>So Geralt heads west, further into Redania, forgets about making it to Kaer Morhen this year, and arrives in Lettenhove just as the first snow begins to fall. He gazes at the manor in front of him for a few minutes before going up to the massive doors and knocking.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He only has to wait for a minute before a servant opens the door. The man eyes him suspiciously and doesn't invite him inside.</p><p> </p><p>“Erm, hello,” Geralt mumbles, “Is Jaskier here ? Or rather Julian Pankratz ? The viscount ? He's a friend of mine. Could you... hem... tell him that Geralt of Rivia is here to see him ? Please ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>The man nods and closes the door in his face. Geralt scowls at it and wonders if the man will actually go to Jaskier or if he lied to him. The door opens again a few minutes later and Jaskier beams at him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Geralt ! What a nice surprise ! What brings you to my humble home ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Jaskier,” Geralt sighs in relief and hugs him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Ohh, you stink ! When was the last time you bathed ? Let me go ! Geralt, you're going to ruin my clothes ! Urgh, you heathen.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt finally lets him go and takes a step back. He looks around and spots three servants watching them curiously. Geralt frowns, takes Jaskier's arm and drags him to the first secluded corner he sees.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Jaskier, is Ciri with you ?”, he asks urgently.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Ciri, who's Ciri ?”, he asks, puzzled.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Geralt's heart stops for a few seconds because his daughter isn't with his friend, and that means that she's lost somewhere outside, maybe alone, or worse in bad company. He takes a few deep breaths and strides back to the door.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“No, no, no,” Jaskier says and catches up to him easily, “You're not leaving before you explain ! Stefan, don't open the door !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I don't have the time, Jaskier, I need to find her.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Right, well let me at least offer you a bath and a meal, before you stomp out. You look completely worn out.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Geralt's stomach betrays him by growling loudly. It's been a few days since he last ate a hearty meal, and it's true that he reeks. He's been running all year long with only one set of clothes on his back, completed only the barest contracts to keep him fed and he's so tired. Tired and scared. Tired and frightened and angry. <em>Fuck</em>, a meal sounds so good.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He's so lost in his thoughts that he lets Jaskier drag him up some stairs, and regains some awareness when the bard starts to pull on his armour's buckles. He groans but lets Jaskier work. The bard wrinkles his nose when he catches the smell of his clothes and Geralt blushes in embarrassment.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Jaskier strips him efficiently and orders him to wait next to the fire in his small clothes for the bath to be prepared. Geralt sinks down on a plush bearskin rug and enjoys the warmth. He starts to drift off to sleep and only Jaskier's hands on his shoulders prevent him from faceplantling in the fire.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt doesn't register the tub being brought in and follows Jaskier's directions when he steers him to it. He sinks down into the hot water with a moan of pleasure, and Jaskier hands him a plate filled with meat and cheese that Geralt devours while the bard washes him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He then drifts off again in the bath and only moves when Jaskier rouses him. He flops down on the bed and goes to sleep immediately. He'll explain everything to his friend in the morning, and then he'll leave, he thinks blearily before nodding off.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He does in fact explain everything to Jaskier in the late morning but his friend refuses to let him leave.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You can't leave ! You don't even know where to find her ! She could be anywhere.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And that's why I need to go,” Geralt growls and prowls in the confines of the room he's in, “Where are my clothes, Jaskier ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I had them burned, they were way past saving, and your armour is being cleaned by our armourer. I'm commissioning new clothes for you this afternoon, but you'll have to wear some of mine in the meantime.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“That... That... Jaskier !”, he exclaims angrily.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“The word you're looking for is “thank you”, dear. Now, you said that another witcher took her in, right ? Then she's not alone and she'll make her way to me soon, I can assure you. And you getting lost and frozen in the winter will <em>not </em>help her in any way.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I can't just stay here, Jaskier. I need... I won't be able to rest knowing she's out there alone.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Listen, I get it, but you're not helping her if you freeze to death out there. Spend the winter here, with me, and we'll work something out for spring. You'll go one way, I'll go the other and we'll find her, I promise.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt only grunts.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And in the meantime, you'll have three meals a day ! Don't think that I didn't notice that you lost an alarming amout of weight. You'll rest and train and we'll set out in the first days of spring. I promise,” he swears and pleads with Geralt.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fuck, I won't be able to relax knowing she's out there, Jaskier. I can't be idle !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm not asking you to like it. I'm asking you to plan and prepare. Come on, Geralt, you know as well as I, deep down in your gut, that you won't help her by leaving now. Winter's here and you're broke beside, you'll have to spend all of your nights outside. Even you can't bear that for a whole season.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Geralt lets his shoulders slump in defeat because Jaskier's right. Fuck, he doesn't like it but the bard has the right idea. He crosses his arms over his chest and the too tight chemise Jaskier lent him, and goes back to the small table in the corner of the room, where a new meal sits innocently.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Will your family let me stay ?”, he asks between two bites.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't worry about that. Everything's been arranged already, my friend,” Jaskier reassures him and squeezes his shoulder before sitting at the table too.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They eat in silence and Geralt's thoughts are swirling. He imagines Ciri huddling next to a fire in the wilderness. He sees her being taken prisoner by Nilfgaard's soldiers. He dreams about her tiny little freezing body. The food turns to ash in his mouth.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh, that is not a good expression on you, darling,” Jaskier says quietly, “Come on, off to bed with you again. Take a nap and you'll see, everything will look brighter in a few hours.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralts nods dumbly but he knows that his problems won't solve themselves while he sleeps. He lets Jaskier tuck him into bed and Geralt can't stop thinking about Ciri. He can't relax and Jaskier frowns at him from where he sits at the witcher's side. He finally gets up and fetches his lute. He strums the chords, hums quietly and Geralt lets himself be lulled to sleep by his friend's soft voice.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Geralt spends a truly miserable winter. He can't stop worrying, doesn't eat as much as he should and doesn't sleep soundly. He's not a good guest either, and the meals he takes with Jaskier's family are often awkward. He feels bad about his attitude too, but doesn't manage to unearth enough fake cheerfulness to appear as a nice and decent person.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Jaskier tells him not to worry about his family, that they understand that something weighs heavily on him, but Geralt can't stop his brooding. He mopes days and nights, spends hours in some corners looking at walls and thinking about Ciri.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He has nightmares and even Jaskier's music isn't soothing enough to let him sleep soundly. And the least said about the night his friend offered him a whore to help him relax, the better. He hasn't seen a woman flee so fast in all of his life.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Luckily, he and Jaskier manage to plan. They agree that they need to separate to cover more ground in their search. Geralt will go up north again, comb north Redania, then head to Caingorn, Kovir and Poviss and come back to Novigrad with a ship, before heading east following the river Pontar. Jaskier will go south to Temeria, then Sodden and he'll head north again through Lyria, Rivia and Aedirn.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They agree to explore Kaedwen in autumn and to reconvene at the foot of the trail leading up to Kaer Morhen before winter. If one of them has Ciri, they'll go to the witchers' fortress, and if they don't manage to find her, they'll go south again and winter in Ard Carraigh, so that they'll be able to start their search early the next spring.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt holds to this plan tightly and repeats it quietly several times a day. A few days before they are set to depart, Jaskier drags Geralt to the stables and orders him to choose a new mount.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I can't, Jaskier, I don't have the money to pay you back !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I don't care about the money,” Jaskier says and waves his objection away, “Just choose a damn horse before I give you my brother's warhorse. You can give it to Ciri when you get Roach back from her.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt ends up choosing a young mare that he trains for the remaining few days of his stay.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“What will you call her ?”, Jaskier asks him the day before they are set to separate, “And don't say Roach !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I don't know,” he says and frowns.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Well, then I name thy Hope.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“That's a stupid name for a horse.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Better than Roach. Come on, let her rest, she's got a few rough months ahead of her and she could use a good scrubbing before we leave.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt gives her back to the stablemaster with strict orders to pamper her before Jaskier drags him back to the manor. They both have a last bath and share a last meal with the Pankratz family before heading to bed early. In the morning, they wake up before dawn, eat breakfast together and make their ways to the estate's gates.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Thank you, Jaskier. For everything,” Geralt tells him sincerely and hugs him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't worry,” the bard says and pats his shoulder, “You'd do the same for me.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I would,” Geralt says and means it, “I totally would.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh. Well, that's nice to hear. Now, don't you worry, we'll find her. And you'll be able to play the overbearing protective father soon enough.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They disentangle themselves, share a last handshake and nod at each other before Geralt gets up on Hope and heads north and Jaskier goes south. They'll find her, Geralt vows, they <em>will</em> find her and make sure she is safe. There's no other alternative.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So extra-long chapter because winter and Cats :p</p><p>I've got two companion pieces that I'll post in the "Witchers' grapevine" in the next few days. I'm working on a third about Seyn and how the Cats acquired the brothel.<br/>And yes, Seyn is that whore from the last chapter of "The witchers' stalker" :D</p><p>Tomorrow I'll get started on the last chapter of this fic too!<br/>So if you have some things you'd like to see in the drabbles, don't hesitate to ask. I can't promise you I will write about it, but if I like your idea and my imagination works correctly, I might be able to do something :D</p><p>And finally, thank you for all your comments and kudos!<br/>See you soon!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Hatchet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p><span>Ciri soon finds out that Serrit is a pleasant travel companion albeit a quiet one. He doesn't speak much but he keeps her in view as much as possible. She first fears that he'll turn out to be like Coën, who hated when she got into trouble, but he doesn't stop her from stealing or asking questions to barkeeps or training. </span>She feels like he is assessing her but she doesn't know for what.</p><p> </p><p>When they leave the brothel, they head up north to Redania, where they suppose Jaskier spent the winter. Ciri wonders where Geralt was during winter, and hopes that he had a home to go back to and didn't have to stay outside.</p><p> </p><p>They enter Redania a few days after they left the Cats' brothel and decide to head towards Gelibol. If Jaskier isn't there, they'll head west and go back south on the western side of the country.</p><p> </p><p>Their journey is uneventful but slightly cold. Winter is only just giving way to spring and the nights are still cold. She soon learns that Serrit is mostly broke, and they only stop at taverns once a day to enjoy a hearty hot meal.</p><p> </p><p>The rest of the time they have to hunt. Serrit has some traps with him, that they lay in the evenings so that they can offer them breakfast if they are lucky. Otherwise they have to track and kill game the old fashioned way.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri insists on accompanying Serrit on his hunts and, to her surprise, she's almost as quiet as the witcher. Serrit nods at her when she avoids making noise and claps her shoulder when she catches a squirrel with one of her daggers. She perks up under the silent praises.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher has her help with the skinning of their catches, and she soon gets used to the blood, the entrails and the smells. It's not the first time she does it, Letho had shown her how to do it too, but she still feels queezy at the beginning.</p><p> </p><p>To reward her perseverance, Serrit gifts her one of his spare throwing hatchets and Ciri is delighted. The weapon is heavier than her daggers but so much cooler, she thinks.</p><p> </p><p>When she first practices throwing it, she thinks that it'll be mostly the same as throwing her daggers. She's completely mistaken. She has to get used to the new weight and apply more force to her throw. After she starts practicing, she has sore arms for days and is forced to apply a soothing balm to her muscles. Despite that, Serrit doesn't let her give up and she carries on stubbornly.</p><p> </p><p>And then two weeks after they set out together, they come across another witcher. They are travelling on a redanian road, and watch as a man approaches on foot but leading a horse going south. Ciri steers Roach so that she stays behind Serrit's horse and they continue on slowly.</p><p> </p><p>As the traveller approaches, she starts to distinguish two swords on his back and a small white lump trotting beside the man's horse. She wonders what it is and squints her eyes. Unfortunately what she now knows is a witcher is still too far away for her to be able to deduce what is accompanying him.</p><p> </p><p>And a few seconds later Serrit lets out an exasperated groan and the other witcher stops in the middle of the road. Ciri looks at the Viper's back and wonders if she'll gain a new travelling companion.</p><p> </p><p>When they finally come across the unfamiliar witcher, Ciri spots his huge facial scars and can't stop staring at them. She's distracted from the sight of them when the white lump bleats loudly and startles her.</p><p> </p><p>It's a goat, she realizes. The witcher is travelling with a young goat. Ciri frowns at the small animal and wonders if the goat's being kept as a future meal. It seems to her that buying or hunting would be less time consuming than raising a goat.</p><p> </p><p>She fully expects Serrit to dismount to chat with the new witcher for a while, but the Viper just narrows his eyes at the stranger and nods slowly at him before asking about Jaskier. The new witcher mumbles and stutters an answer that she somehow takes to mean that he hasn't seen the bard for a few years.</p><p> </p><p>Serrit grimaces and rolls his eyes at the man's awkwardness, and Ciri stares in amazement at him because he's the first witcher she meets that isn't completely self-assured. Serrit then nods at the man and goes on. The other witcher just blushes and quickly looks up at the sky, Ciri wonders what that is about. She waves at the man as she passes and follows Serrit when he calls for her.</p><p> </p><p>She stays quiet for a while, but when she's sure that the other witcher can't see them anymore, she doesn't hesitate to grill her companion.</p><p> </p><p>“Serrit,” she says in a sing-song voice, “Who was that ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Eskel,” he grunts at her.</p><p> </p><p>“Right, that explains so much,” she says sarcastically, “Why didn't you leave me with him then ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Because I'm not a monster,” he says and turns towards her. “This one is <em>addled</em>, if you know what I mean”, he whispers and points his finger at his head, “And he's clearly not getting better. He's travelling with a freaking <em>goat </em>now. You know, I almost pity Lambert sometimes.”</p><p> </p><p>“What does Lambert have to do with Eskel ?”, she asks with a frown on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Guy is his brother. His family's fucked up, girl. He spends his winters with a ghost, an antisocial grump and the addled one. Might explain why he's always so... weird and prickly.”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri looks back behind her and hesitates to go back after Eskel. Because if he's Lambert's brother, he's also Geralt's. And he might help her or know where to find her surprise father.</p><p> </p><p>But Serrit says that he's <em>mad</em> and their earlier meeting doesn't fill her with confidence. The man maybe really is short a few marbles. And she doesn't want to end up abandonned on purpose or forgotten about by accident. So she follows Serrit north, he probably knows best anyway.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It takes them almost a month to reach Gelibol and they still don't manage to find Jaskier. Ciri starts to wonder if the man even exists or if he's just a witchers' collective hallucination. At this point the second option is starting to sound plausible and isn't that sad.</p><p> </p><p>Fortunately, she's not getting bored. She's got the use of her hatchet to master and as she shares her stock of dried plants with Serrit, she starts to collect new ones.</p><p> </p><p>The choices of fresh plants are still meagre but she finds some nettle, some wild lettuce and they raid a chicory field when they stumble upon one unexpectedly. She starts to dry some nettle and they eat the rest fresh.</p><p> </p><p>So after they comb Gelibol from southt to north, they head west and stumble upon another witcher in the evening a day after they cross the Nimnar river. When Ciri spots Ivo camping under a walnut tree at the edge of some meadows, she prays that Serrit will decide to ignore the Bear and carry on their path. Alas, he decides to stop at the witcher's camp and Ciri dismounts after him with a scowl firmly affixed on her face.</p><p> </p><p>The two witchers greet each other cordially and when Serrit turns to her, probably to introduce them, Ciri crosses her arms over her chest and growls :</p><p> </p><p>“We know each other.”</p><p> </p><p>She then turns back towards Roach, takes Serrit's horse's reins in her hands and heads towards the stream she sees runs nearby. After they drink their fill, she leads the horses to the second walnut tree growing not far away from the first. She takes their gear off them, pets them slowly and then brushes them thoroughly.</p><p> </p><p>When she feels like she has lingered long enough, she joins the witchers next to the fire and Serrit hands her a bowl of soup. He raises an eyebrow at her and then turns his head towards Ivo, who still hasn't said a word to her, in an inquisitive gesture. Ciri narrows her eyes at him, slurps obnoxiously at her soup and then pointedly gets her bedroll out and goes to sleep with her back to the fire.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri wakes up at dawn and spots the two witchers on the other side of the fire arguing quietly with each other. She groans, because of course they would be up already. She gets up, stretches and leads the three horses to the stream. </p><p> </p><p>When she comes back, she kneels next to the embers and stokes the fire. She then prepares some water for her morning tea, in a pot the Cats gave her, and disappears in the forest to relieve herself while the water heats.</p><p> </p><p>Whe she comes back, Ivo gives her some cold meat from the previous evening's meal and she takes it gingerly. She stares at him for a few seconds but the witcher only looks puzzled, she huffs and plops down next to her bedroll to busy herself with the tea. She's not speaking to him until he apologizes for abandonning her a year ago, she decides, she damn well deserves an apology.</p><p> </p><p>She brews her tea and Serrit hands her his two mugs that she fills to the brim. He leaves one mug to her and takes the other with him to sit between her and Ivo. Ciri's engaged in a weird staring contest with the Bear and wills herself not to look away. She'll make him feel guilty if it's the last thing she does.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, for fuck' sake !”, Serrit interrupts them with a growl, “Are you going to apologize to her or not ? Freaking asshole! I'd like to leave at some point today.”</p><p> </p><p>“You're not leaving me with him !”, Ciri exclaims vehemently.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I am.”</p><p> </p><p>“No ! I'll follow you ! I'll haunt your steps !”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm sorry,” Ivo then says slowly but he still looks puzzled.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you even know what you are apologizing for ?”, Ciri asks sarcastically and regrets her words immediately when she sees the Bear's still lost for word, “Don' answer that ! I might developp an unstoppable urge to hit you, depending on your answer.”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri rolls her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose and even if she just woke up, she already feels tired. She hates her life sometimes. Why did they have to meet Ivo of all the witchers ? </p><p> </p><p>“Good, now that that's done, I will be taking my leave. I'm sure Ivo will take good care of you, Fiona.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you say so,” Ciri grumbles and hastens to finish her tea so that Serrit can have his mug back.</p><p> </p><p>But when she gets up to give it back to him, he tells her to keep it and she hugs him. She'll miss him too, she thinks. She orders him to convey her greetings to Auckes and Letho, when he'll see them next, and she waves at him as he leaves. When she turns back, she glares at Ivo, finishes her cold meat and harnesses the horses. She has an exhausting journey ahead of her, she's sure of it. </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I feel a tiny little bit bad about what I did with Eskel here... :p</p><p>Refer to chapter 3 of the Witchers' grapevine for the first meeting between Eskel and Serrit and the cause of the awkwardness :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Round and round she goes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Travelling with Ivo is weird, and not just because she's still mad at him. He clearly remembers her as she was a year ago, and often seems startled when she does something she didn't know how to do before.</p><p> </p><p>The first time Ivo comes back with rabbits and Ciri takes them from him before impaling them on sticks, the witcher makes a wondering noise and watches her carefully. The next time he comes back with rabbits, he gives them to her without prompting and still looks at her like he can't quite believe she grew up.</p><p> </p><p>She usually rolls her eyes at him when his staring gets really insistent. She's trying to avoid speaking to him too much, because the man clearly doesn't know why he should feel bad about her and that angers her. Who leaves a child with a stranger and doesn't bother to say goodbye ?</p><p> </p><p>They spend two weeks in tense silence while they travel west and then south before Ciri decides to cut the witcher some slack.</p><p> </p><p>Ivo had been watching her practice with her hatchet raptly every evening, and even offered some advice, when they come across a town big enough to have a market. Ivo tells her to head to the tavern and to ask about Jaskier while he goes to said market.</p><p> </p><p>She goes to the tavern, asks about Jaskier and the barkeep tells her that he last saw the bard a month and a half ago going south. Ciri's so elated, because it is the first strong lead she gets in more than a year, that she runs back out to share the news with the Bear. She's in a fairly good mood when she finally reaches Ivo.</p><p> </p><p>The witcher nods at the intel she brings back and they hurry out of the town. When the evening comes and they make camp, Ivo tells her that they'll probably reach him in three or four weeks because they're faster on horse than him on foot. And then presents a large leather belt to her.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri eyes the belt curiously, because it's clearly too large for her waist, and takes it gingerly when Ivo growls at her.</p><p> </p><p>“What am I supposed to do with that ?”, she asks him and holds the belt at eye level.</p><p> </p><p>“Wear it,” the witcher deadpans and Ciri glares at him.</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know where you learned to size people up but that is clearly too large for me !”</p><p> </p><p>“It doesn't go around your waist, girl,” he sighs exasperaredly, “It's a harness that goes over one shoulder and round your chest. You can clip your hatchet at the hip and your daggers in front of you using the small buckles.”</p><p> </p><p>“Really ?”, Ciri asks, excited, and gets up to try it on.</p><p> </p><p>She has to give up after a few minutes because she just can't seem to buckle the harness up correctly, and Ivo motions for her to come stand in front of him. She does and hands him the harness. The Bear fastens it in a few seconds.</p><p> </p><p>“Here,” he says and shows her a buckle, “You can ajust the harness as you grow. And these buckles go in front of you, that's where you can attach your weapons.”</p><p> </p><p>“I think I remember some Cats wearing something similar. With a lot of daggers.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, that would be something they'd do.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri then runs up to Roach, fetches her hatchet, unties her daggers from her ankle and forearm and hurries to fasten everything to the buckles. They're heavy, she realizes as soon as she's done and frowns at her chest. </p><p> </p><p>“You'll have to get used to it, but you'll be able to draw much quicker than if you have to fumble with your ankle or forearm sheaths. And you'll be able to keep your hatchet with you too.”</p><p> </p><p>“And I'll look totally badass !”</p><p> </p><p>Ivo laughs at her quip but nods anyway, and Ciri practices drawing her weapons while she finishes her meal. She then arranges the harness differently, so that the hatchet's handle protrudes from behind her back, and she almost takes her ear off when she tries to draw it. She winces, lets Ivo check her over and agrees to let her gift be for the moment. She'll pick it up again in the morning and wear it until she's used to it.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Ciri's slowly getting used to her harness and practices unsheating and then throwing her daggers and hatchet on Roach's back. The mare barely reacts anymore when a blade whistles over her ears, and Ciri makes sure to brush her thoroughly every evening to thank her for her patience.</p><p> </p><p>And as Ciri throws her blades and mostly strikes her targets perfectly, she learns how to dismount and mount in a hurry. She usually takes her time getting up in the saddle but, in the middle of the road and while she is running, she can jump down from Roach and mount back up again with a little flourish.</p><p> </p><p>Ivo watches her exhaust herself all day, running after her blades and Roach, and only stops her once. She jumped on the mare's back rather violently and Ivo scolded her and ordered her to be more careful.</p><p> </p><p>“Stop that, you brat, do you think the horse enjoys having you jump on her back without a care for her wellbeing ? You might break her back at the speed you're going.”</p><p> </p><p>And Ciri paled and nodded seriously because she hadn't thought about Roach's wellbeing. She then takes care to not inflict pain on the mare by going fast but lightly. She wouldn't want to give a hurt Roach back to Geralt.</p><p> </p><p>And after another week of travel, Ivo makes them veer off the path and they happen upon an empty camp into a small clearing. Ciri looks around slowly and realizes that she knows the horse tied to a nearby branch. It's Heyn's. </p><p> </p><p>Ciri lets her shoulders slump in defeat, because for the moment it weirdly looks like she'll have to repeat the previous year and do another round of witchers with still no Jaskier or Geralt in sight.</p><p> </p><p>Ivo tells her to take care of the horses and goes hunting. Ciri busies herself with the animals and manages to smile ruefully at Heyn when he comes back from wherever he previously disappeared to. The witcher boggles at her.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing here ? Is Jaskier nearby ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Still haven't found him. I'm with Ivo again,” she says flippantly because she's used to the situation by now.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, great,” he groans and flops down on the floor, “I'm abandonning you if you're as much of a nightmare as last year !”</p><p> </p><p>“If you say so,” Ciri says and grins as she joins him at the fire, “I'm sorry for how I behaved with you last year, I was a real brat and you didn't deserve it.”</p><p> </p><p>The witcher hums and nods in acknowledgment. He then gives her a long once over.</p><p> </p><p>“Who the fuck let you have an axe ?”</p><p> </p><p>“It's not an axe”, Ciri frowns at him, “Serrit says that I'm not allowed to have an axe before I turn eighteen. So he gave me a throwing hatchet !”</p><p> </p><p>“As if that makes it any better. Vipers, no sense whatsoever” she hears him mutter and she smirks at him.</p><p> </p><p>When Ivo comes back, they make a nettle soup, like the last time they were together, and Ciri is allowed to have the last bowl. She goes to sleep with a smile on her face but not before threatening Ivo if he leaves without saying goodbye. She promises him that she'll haunt him forever if he flees during the night.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Ciri is pleasantly surprised to see that Ivo kept his word and that he stayed to say goodbye. They eat breakfast together in the morning and Ciri hugs the witcher tight, even if he stays stiff in her arms, when he announces that he is leaving. He ruffles her hair awkwardly when she lets him go, tells her to keep practicing and wishes her luck on her quest.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri watches Ivo disappear to the east and Heyn and her continue to the south. He's nicely surprised by her improvement in skills too and praises her warmly. Ciri beams at him and vows to be better behaved than last time. He takes to her new habit of throwing blades from Roach's back with good humor and introduces a new game in her practice.</p><p> </p><p>“How do you choose your targets ?”, he wonders two days after they meet.</p><p> </p><p>“I... Well, I aim at whatever I want actually. It depends on what strikes my fancy, I guess.”</p><p> </p><p>“Mmm, we'll do it differently frow now on. I spy the oak tree's lowest branch,” he says and watches her with a smile.</p><p> </p><p>Ciri doesn't immediatly understand what Heyn wants from her, until he shakes his head towards the closest oak tree. Ciri frowns at the tree for a few seconds before she lets out a quiet sound of understanding. She draws one of her daggers and throws it at the tree.</p><p> </p><p>Heyn hums at her and Ciri runs to the tree, scales it and retrieves her blade which stuck true. She then runs after Roach, who didn't stop, and goes up in the saddle quickly but carefully. They continue the game for a few hours and stop when Ciri manages to catch a squirrel. She's delighted and presents her catch to Heyn proudly.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>And in the evening, she savors the meat and works on her climbing skills, which have gotten rusty she noticed on the road, and goes to sleep wishing Geralt could see her hunt. She hopes he would be proud of her.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Finally, two weeks after Heyn took her in, the witcher perks up when they pass in front of a tavern and orders Ciri to dismount. They leave the horses bound to the post in front of the establishment, take their bags with them and enter. Heyn puts a hand on her shoulder, steers her towards the bar and settles there.</p><p>
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</p><p>Ciri commandeers a stool of her own and asks for a tea while Heyn orders an ale. They are served quickly, and the witcher turns back towards the dining hall and points to the bard singing between two tables. Ciri watches him carefully but doesn't understand what Heyn wants her to deduce about the man. He's loud, boisterous but doesn't seem dangerous.</p><p>
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</p><p>“That's your father,” he finally says when Ciri turns back to him with a puzzled frown on her face.</p><p>
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</p><p>“Really ?”, she asks disbelievingly because she doesn't realize yet that her search finally bore fruits.</p><p>
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</p><p>The witcher hums and Ciri watches the bard with rapt attention now. He hasn't seen them yet and continues to sing. He seems nice, she thinks, and he is a good singer too. The audience seems to like him and claps and sings with him too. But he's so different from Geralt that she wonders how they became friends. She can't picture the stoic witcher travelling with the flashy bard.</p><p>
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</p><p>When his song comes to an end, Heyn gets up and motions for the bard to join them. He excuses himself to his audience and makes his way to them. Ciri wrings her hands and really really hopes the man will take her back to Geralt. If he knows where her surprise father even is.</p><p>
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</p><p>“Jaskier,” Heyn greets him, “Here's your daughter, you're welcome.”</p><p>
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</p><p>And the witcher tugs Ciri off her barstool and pushes her towards Jaskier.</p><p>
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</p><p>“Hum... Thank you, I guess,” he says quietly and stares at Ciri.</p><p>
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</p><p>Jaskier then steps forward, opens his arms and hugs her. And Ciri freezes because she's beeing hugged by a complete stranger. She doesn't really know what to do and squirms in the embrace.</p><p>
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</p><p>“Right,” she hears Heyn say behind her, “I'll leave you to it then. I'm sure that you have plenty of things to discuss.”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Don't go yet,” Jaskier asks of him, “I... Crap, I might still need you.”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Hey, I didn't sign up to be your bodyguard. I only agreed to take on the squirt until I could giver her to another witcher or to you ! Mission accomplished, I'm leaving.”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Fuck Heyn,” Jaskier hisses and Ciri shudders because the man still hasn't let go of her, “I'm travelling alone. If I want to get her to a safe place, I'll at least need an escort to Oxenfurt. It'll take you two weeks, at most. I'll pay you !”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Hum..., fine. If you insist on paying me,” Heyn grins and bends down to steal the purse hanging at the bard's belt, “We passed a brothel on our way here. Come and get me tomorrow at dawn, I'll deliver you both to Oxenfurt.”</p><p>
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</p><p>And the witcher waves at them, collects his belongings and heads out of the tavern.</p><p>
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</p><p>“Shit,” she hears Jaskier mutter and then he asks her a little hysterically, “Tell me that you're Geralt's child surprise and not actually my child. Please ?”</p><p>
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</p><p>“I'm Geralt's,” she murmurs against his chest, “I'm Cirilla. I'm Geralt's.”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Oh good,”, he sighs and Ciri feels him relax against her, “I've spent the last month panicking about having a daughter. But I'm glad that I found you. Come on, there's an inn two houses over, we'll get a room there.”</p><p>
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</p><p>Jaskier finally releases her and they head for the door of the tavern. When Jaskier sees Roach, he smiles and goes to pet her. The mare lets him and Ciri finally relaxes, that means that the horse knows him.</p><p>
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</p><p>“I... Hum...,” Ciri starts awkwardly and swallows convulsively, “Do you know if Geralt has made it out of the ambush ? Is he still alive ? Are you taking me to him ?”</p><p>
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</p><p>“Oh, you poor thing,” Jaskier whispers and steps away from Roach to crouch in front of her, “I saw Geralt during winter. He's alive, running himself ragged looking for you all over the continent. We made plans, you'll be reunited with him at the end of autumn for sure, I promise you.”</p><p>
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</p><p>Ciri smiles at the news even as tears start to pour out of her eyes. She's so happy. It's the first time she has an actual confirmation that her surprise father is still alive and still looking for her. She starts sobbing in earnest when the news truly register with her and Jaskier opens his arms for her.</p><p>
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</p><p>She burrows in his chest, almost sends him sprawling on the dirt with the force with which she collides against him, and openly sobs against his doublet as she thanks him repeatedly. Jaskier makes low soothing noises, pets her hair and lets her tire herself out. She's so glad she finally found him. She can't wait to see Geralt next.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Finally :p</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Jaskier</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Jaskier is a month out of Lettenhove when he finds his first witcher. He's in a redanian village located next to the temerian border, travelling with a convoy, when he hears that a witcher took care of a werewolf nearby and is enjoying a drink at the tavern.</p><p> </p><p>He informs the convoy's leader that he'd like to stop for a little while. A few coins are exchanged and the leader orders an hour pause. The travellers scatter quickly, some go visit the small shops and others head for the tavern. Jaskier accompanies the latter and immediately looks for the darkest corner of the establishment.</p><p> </p><p>He spots the witcher quickly, the man is drinking alone and the other patrons are giving him a wide berth. Jaskier orders an ale at the bar and heads for the witcher. It's a Cat, he realizes and his steps falter, he doesn't<em> want</em> to go bother a Cat. He sighs loudly and carries on because Geralt's child is more important than his discomfort, and he's lucky that it isn't Mal waiting for him.</p><p> </p><p>“Huh, where's your daughter ?”, are the first words out of Jayn's mouth and Jaskier gapes at him.</p><p> </p><p>“I don't have a daughter !”, he exclaims and sits at the witcher's table.</p><p> </p><p>“Course, you do,” Jayn snorts, “We've been running after you for a year trying to bring her back to you. You still haven't found her ?”</p><p> </p><p>And Jaskier continues to gape at the witcher because he <em>doesn't</em> have a daughter. He's pretty sure of it. Nobody's ever contacted him about a possible bastard. It's true that theoretically he could have a child, but he always trusted his partners to take the necessary precautions after their night of passion. Maybe one didn't ? But how would the child end up with the Cat witchers ?</p><p> </p><p>And then it downs on him that Geralt's child wouldn't have introduced herself as such, and that she would have given his name to the witchers. And from then on, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that she could be his daughter. Unless he really has a child that is running around with witchers looking for him. <em>Shit,</em> he thinks, <em>that kid will probably end up so traumatized.</em></p><p> </p><p>“What does she look like ?”, he asks warily and prays for the answer to be blond.</p><p> </p><p>“She's small but fierce,” Jayn says with a grin and adds with a shrug, “A terror with a throwing dagger ! Got some nightmares sometimes, she's from Cintra.”</p><p> </p><p>And Jaskier lets out a relieved sigh because Cirilla is from Cintra so it's probably her posing as his daughter. He ignores the comment about the dagger, because he doesn't want to imagine why the princess of Cintra would need to learn how to use a dagger so young. And then wonders who the hell let her have a blade in the first place, he's going to have some scolding to do, or better yet delegate the task to Geralt.</p><p> </p><p>“She's a handful,” Jayn continues, “You'll have your hands full with her.”</p><p> </p><p>“That's... Good ? Probably. Do you know where I could actually find her ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Probably in Redania,” Jayn shrugs, “We left her with Serrit.”</p><p> </p><p>“The bad tempered Viper ?”, Jaskier hisses at him, “What the hell possessed you to do that ? Couldn't you have left her with Coën or Heyn instead ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, don't take that tone with me ! It was his turn on the babysitting roster ! And you should be lucky that we took her in. We've been lugging her around the continent for a year now. We could have abandonned her at any time !”</p><p> </p><p>“She spent a year with the Caravan ?”, he asks in horror and can already imagine all the atrocities she has had to witness.</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Jayn rolls his eyes at him and Jaskier starts to get offended, he feels like the witcher takes him for a moron, “She got passed around witchers during the last year. We had her for the winter. We spent it in... Well, you really don't need to know that. She was safe, that is all that matters.”</p><p> </p><p>“What aren't you telling me ?”, he wonders suspiciously.</p><p> </p><p>“Nothing of interest. Anyway, she probably still is with Serrit. They should be in Redania somewhere. I'd go back north if I were you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Right. Go north. Comb Redania from north to south. Find Serrit. Find... my kid. Easy as breathing, no problem,” Jaskier mutters, “What's her name anyway ?”</p><p> </p><p>“You really didn't know you had a kid ?”, Jayn laughs at him, “It's Fiona. You'll like her, you'll see. She's a little firecracker.”</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier chokes because a child described as a <em>firecracker</em> by a witcher seems like a whole lot of trouble, if you ask him, and Jaskier can already feel some grey hair starting to sprout on his head. He groans and finishes his drink in silence.</p><p> </p><p>He takes his leave from the witcher quickly after finishing his tankard, thanks him for the information and goes looking for the convoy's leader. He informs the man that he's leaving alone to go north and the man shrugs. He probably doesn't care, Jaskier muses, as long as he doesn't ask for his money back, the man will let him do what he wants. So Jaskier heads north again and hopes to find the child quickly.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Jaskier's performing in a tavern in Temeria two weeks later, because he's in a hurry but he still needs food and drink, when he spots Heyn – and not Serrit ! - at the bar with a child sitting next to him. The witcher motions him over and Jaskier joins him quickly. He stares intently at the kid and he thinks that he recognizes princess Pavetta of Cintra's features in her. Or maybe he's projecting too hard because he really hopes that this girl isn't his child.</p><p> </p><p>“Jaskier,” Heyn greets him when he reaches him, “Here's your daughter, you're welcome.”</p><p> </p><p>The girl is pushed towards him. She seems wary.</p><p> </p><p>“Hum... Thank you, I guess,” he says quietly.</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier steps forward and opens his arms to hug the kid, because that is what is probably expected of you when you finally find your long lost child, no ? The girl allows it but stays tense in his arms.</p><p> </p><p>“Right,” Heyn says, “I'll leave you to it. I'm sure that you have plenty of things to discuss.”</p><p> </p><p>“Don't go yet,” Jaskier pleads, “I... Crap, I might still need you.”</p><p> </p><p>And he really would prefer it if the witcher didn't immediately disappear. He's travelling alone, without a convoy, and he doesn't want to risk the kid's safety. It's one thing to endanger himself, because the roads aren't always safe, but it's another thing altogether with a child. And a witcher escort sounds really nice.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, I didn't sign up to be your bodyguard. I only agreed to take on the squirt until I could giver her to another witcher or to you ! Mission accomplished, I'm leaving,” Heyn says and he really sounds like he means it.</p><p> </p><p>“Fuck Heyn,” Jaskier hisses at him, “I'm travelling alone. If I want to get her to a safe place, I'll at least need an escort to Oxenfurt. It'll take you two weeks, at most, I'll pay you !”</p><p> </p><p>He's not above begging the witcher and really hopes that his promise will sway the man.</p><p> </p><p>“Hum..., fine. If you insist on paying me,” Heyn grins and bends down to steal the purse hanging at his side, “We passed a brothel on our way here. Come and get me tomorrow at dawn, I'll deliver you both to Oxenfurt.”</p><p> </p><p>And Heyn just leaves. Jaskier sighs but he's not overly worried, the purse he took is mostly empty and worn for show. His savings are safely tucked away in his lute case. And then he turns his attention on the kid still trapped in his arms.</p><p> </p><p>“Shit. Tell me that you're Geralt's child surprise and not actually my child. Please ?”, Jaskier asks a little hysterically because he needs to be <em>sure</em>.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm Geralt's,” she murmurs against his chest and Jaskier is so relieved, “I'm Cirilla. I'm Geralt's.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh good, I've spent the last two weeks panicking about having a daughter. But I'm glad that I found you. Come on, there's an inn two houses over, we'll get a room there.”</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier collects his belongings and steers her towards the door without looking back. He keeps a hand on her shoulder and only lets her go when he spots Roach outside. He goes to pet the mare and thanks her for the good job she's done keeping the kid safe. His reunion with his friend's horse is interrupted by Cirilla though.</p><p> </p><p>“I... Hum... Do you know if Geralt's made it out of the ambush ? Is he still alive ? Are you taking me to him ?”, she asks awkwardly as if she is dreading the answer, and Jaskier berates himself because of course she would be worried, the last time she saw the witcher, he was leaving her to face her ennemies.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you poor thing,” Jaskier whispers and crouches in front of her, “I saw Geralt during winter. He's alive, running himself ragged looking for you all over the continent. We made plans, you'll be reunited with him at the end of autumn for sure, I promise you.”</p><p> </p><p>And then Cirilla starts to cry. Jaskier winces but opens his arms to her. She barrels into his chest, almost sends him sprawling in the dirt, and weeps into his doublet. Jaskier hums at her and strokes her hair slowly. He waits patiently for her to calm down and waves her apologies away when she finally retreats.</p><p> </p><p>“Don't worry,” he says, “I understand. I'd be worried sick about Geralt too, if the last time I saw him he was headed to battle. Come on, the inn's not far.”</p><p> </p><p>And Jaskier gently guides her towards the nearest establishment where he plans to order a good bath and a hearty meal. They'll spend their night in plush beds and in the morning, he'll go badger Heyn until the witcher honors his promise to take them to Oxenfurt.</p><p> </p><p>From there on, it'll be easy to find a convoy heading to Hagge and then another one for Ard Carraigh. They'll have to travel alone for the last part of the journey, he knows, but he's almost confident that they can reach the beginning of the trail leading up to Kaer Morhen unscathed. It'll be a few long months though and he just can't wait to see Geralt again.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Jaskier soon finds out that Cirilla, or Fiona as he still calls her, is a weird child. She's mostly well-adjusted for a kid who spent more than a year running around with emotionally-stunted witchers. She doesn't have a lot of nightmares, retains some of her manners, even if not all, and is hard-working. She's nothing like the spoiled princess he imagined.</p><p> </p><p>But Jaskier sometines thinks that she grew up too fast. She's a pleasant and dependable travel companion, who knows more about plants than him. She can set up and take down a camp in a matter of minutes, can take care of Roach even better than him, and doesn't complain when she has to help with tasks in the convoys they travel with. She feels like someone unnaturally talented to him.</p><p> </p><p>And she can be a small feral thing too. Jaskier once spotted her kneeing a man in the crotch because he grabbed her arm in a tavern the bard was performing in. And not that Jaskier has a problem with Cirilla being able to defend herself, it's just that she did it so fast and violently, without a second thought and with such a snarl on her face, that it shook him a little.</p><p> </p><p>She's not insconpicuous too and Jaskier bemoans that fact. He spent a year convincing Geralt that he didn't need to travel with a sword on display, and he ends up with a kid that insists on wearing a harness on which a hatchet is proudly attached. She refuses to be parted from her weapons, despite Jaskier's pleas, and her get-up sure garners them some heavy or puzzled stares.</p><p> </p><p>And that's even without mentioning her scary version of the <em>I spy</em> game, her deadly accuracy with a throwing dagger, her bad habit of stealing or the saddlebag from hell. Jaskier refuses to rummage through it, he's afraid of what he might find. Cirilla offered him one of Geralt's spare shirt, dried food, money, healing salve, thyme and pepper – and where did she even find pepper, that shit is expensive as hell ! -, soap, tea and, on one memorable occasion, a bomb. Jaskier really hopes that she was joking about the bomb.</p><p> </p><p>So after months of travel, of inns and taverns and of avoiding courts and castles, he's so happy to finally spot the beginning ot the trail up to Kaer Morhen. They'll have to camp for a while, he thinks, before Geralt joins them but they're <em>here</em> and that is all that matters.</p><p> </p><p>“Are we climbing that ?”, Cirilla asks and looks up at the moutain.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes. As soon as Geralt arrives. I'm not taking you up there alone. I almost died the last time I visited.”</p><p> </p><p>“Really ?”, Ciri asks dubiously, “How ?”</p><p> </p><p>“By almost falling down the side of the moutain.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hum. Well I won't. I've always wanted to climb a moutain !”</p><p> </p><p>“Lucky you then. But it's not as fun as it sounds.”</p><p> </p><p>They make camp in silence, Cirilla lights a fire and takes care of Roach while Jaskier goes in search of a stream. He finds a small river ten minutes away from their camp and fills their waterskins. He spots some nettle too and collects a handful to turn into a soup. It's one of Cirilla's favorite.</p><p> </p><p>When he comes back, the camp is set, Roach is grazing and his ward is doing cartwheels in front of the fire. Jaskier sighs but lets her be, it seems to him that she never runs out of energy. He cooks the nettle in Cirilla's small pot, and plays his lute in the evening while his companion sharpens her blades.</p><p> </p><p>Not that he needs to work on his strumming or singing, he spent the last few months performing for the convoys they travelled with and at inns and taverns to collect coin to pay for their expenses and warm clothes, it's just relaxing. They go to sleep early and wake up with the sun.</p><p> </p><p>They developp a new routine as they wait for Geralt. Jaskier forages for plants, which are rare in the late autumn, and Cirilla hunts and provides dried food. They don't eat well but they're not going to starve either so that's that.</p><p> </p><p>His ward insists on exercising Roach everyday and tries to ride bareback. She's not very successful and ends up sprawled in the dirt often enough. Jaskier winces when she hits the ground but doesn't try to prevent her from trying again, she's so stubborn that she probably wouldn't listen to him anyway.</p><p> </p><p>They make use of the time they have to do some laundry and Jaskier teaches her to sing. Cirilla dances too. In the evenings, when he plays, she gets up and works on some dancing steps that she probably remembers from her time at her grandmother's court. She's clumsy at first but she soon gains confidence and is dancing wildly after a week. She seems to like it, even if sometines Jaskier catches a melancholy expression on her face.</p><p> </p><p>And two weeks after they set up camp, Eskel arrives. Jaskier spots him from afar walking next to his horse and a small frolicking white figure that turns out to be a goat. <em>That's weird</em>, he thinks as he watches his approach.</p><p> </p><p>“Jaskier !”, Eskel greets him warmly, “What are you doing here ? Oh, you found your daughter !”</p><p> </p><p>Cirilla waves at the Wolf and approaches to greet him too.</p><p> </p><p>“Good morning, master witcher,” she articulates deliberatly slowly without looking away from him, and Jaskier wonders why she's speaking to Eskel as if he were deaf, “I hope that your journey was uneventful.”</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier elbows Cirilla out of the way because she's being weird, and takes up the conversation.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, my daughter,” he answers Eskel, “Heyn brought her to me.”</p><p> </p><p>“Bear, right ?”, Eskel asks and frowns as if trying to remember if he knows said witcher.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes. Blond one. And we're waiting for Geralt. We promised to reconvene here.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you're spending the winter in the keep with us again ? I can take you up if you want ?”, he offers.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, no, thank you. I'll wait for Geralt. Don't worry about us. We'll be fine for a few more days.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you're sure.”</p><p> </p><p>Eskel shares their midday meal and then disappears on the trail. Jaskier waits a few minutes before turning towards Cirilla.</p><p> </p><p>“What was that ?”, he asks her.</p><p> </p><p>“What ?”, she asks puzzled.</p><p> </p><p>“You speaking to Eskel like he is deaf.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, I was only trying to be polite. Serrit said that he was <em>addled </em>and you have to speak slowly and clearly to daft people, right ?”</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier pinches the bridge of his nose and wonders how this stupid rumor came to be.</p><p> </p><p>“He's not daft,” Jaskier sighs, “But he maybe thought you were.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you're sure ?”, Cirilla asks, puzzled, “He is travelling with a goat after all !”</p><p> </p><p>“And how is that a sign of madness ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know,” Cirilla shrugs, “Serrit said it was.”</p><p> </p><p>“New lesson,” Jaskier says and crouches in front of her, “Don't believe everything people tell you.”</p><p> </p><p>“But it's Serrit !”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe, but he's still wrong about that. Believe me, I would know. And did Eskel appear mad to you ?”</p><p> </p><p>“No,” Cirilla answers and frowns, “He seemed normal.”</p><p> </p><p>And Jaskier's glad to see her taking him seriously, because he doesn't want to spend an entire winter of Cirilla speaking to Eskel as if he's deaf or daft. That would become awkward soon enough.</p><p> </p><p>Two days after meeting Eskel, Jaskier spots three figures on the path leading to their camp. He wonders if it is Geralt and Lambert, but doesn't know who the third person would then be. It turns out that he is mistaken, it's Lambert accompanied by Aiden and Coën. Jaskier really wants to know why these three are travelling together.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh,” Cirilla whispers next to him when she sees the three men, “It's <em>them</em>. Are they spending winter with us too ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don't know,” Jaskier says, “We'll have to ask them.”</p><p> </p><p>When the three men finally reach them, Cirilla runs to Aiden to hug him.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, good, you're not dead,” she says in his chest and the Cat ruffles her hair.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, not you too, Fiona,” Lambert grumbles as he dismounts, “He's not dead. The other Cats are just assholes.”</p><p> </p><p>“Coën ! I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye. I was kidnapped !”, Cirilla then exclaims and hugs the Griffin.</p><p> </p><p>Jaskier looks on with a fond smile and just wonders if he should be alarmed about this kidnapping news. Probably not, he muses, she would have said something if it was important. He'll still tell Geralt about it. His friend can deal with the interrogation when he'll show up.</p><p> </p><p>“I know,” the Griffin laughs, “I don't blame you.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what am I ?”, Lambert grouches, “Freaking invisible ?”</p><p> </p><p>Cirilla finally hugs Lambert too and Jaskier greets the witchers warily. He likes Lambert well enough, but Aiden creeps him out and he has a weird history with Coën.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you three planning to spend the winter in Kaer Morhen too ?”, he asks them.</p><p> </p><p>Lambert nods.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you want us to take you two up the mountain ?”, Coën asks.</p><p> </p><p>“No, thank you,” Jaskier declines, “We're waiting for Geralt.”</p><p> </p><p>“Suit yourself. We'll see you in a few days then.” Lambert says abruptly and stares intenly at the path leading up to the keep.</p><p> </p><p>The Wolf lets out a long sigh, squares his shoulders and starts to go up with his horse and a donkey.</p><p> </p><p>“By the way, what are you doing here together ?”, Jaskier asks quickly, before the witchers disappear, because he's curious.</p><p> </p><p>"We're sort of married," Coën announces with a shrug.</p><p> </p><p>Cirilla gasps at the news and Jaskier just boggles at the Griffin. W<em>hat the hell ?</em>, he thinks, <em>that doesn't explain anything.</em></p><p> </p><p>"We're <em>totally</em> married," Aiden contradicts him.</p><p> </p><p>"We're not married yet," Lambert yells from where he disappeared after a bend in the path, "And hurry up, we don't have all day."</p><p> </p><p>Coën rolls his eyes and leads his horse to follow Lambert.</p><p> </p><p>"Slow down, will you, we're not in a hurry !", Coën orders.</p><p> </p><p>"We so are ! And beware of the bear trap."</p><p> </p><p>“I don't remember seeing a bear trap on the path last year,” Aiden yells after the other two witchers.</p><p> </p><p>"Lambert, for fuck's sake !"</p><p> </p><p>Ciri giggles when she hears Coën's curse and Lambert's laugh, and Jaskier spots a fond smile on Aiden's face. Still creepy, he decides.</p><p> </p><p>"We're totally married," the Cat says to them before jogging after the other two witchers and disappearing after the bend too.</p><p> </p><p>“You know, I'm not sure I want to go to the keep anymore,” Jaskier whispers to Cirilla, “I feel like it's going to be madness up there if Vesemir allows them to stay.”</p><p> </p><p>“They're horrible,” Cirilla whispers back to him in confidence, “Aiden and Lambert can't keep their hands off each other.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hugh,” Jaskier says, “You travelled with them ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah. A <em>nightmare</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“But weren't they... I don't know, mindful of your presence ?”</p><p> </p><p>“I saw Lambert's butt. Twice.”</p><p> </p><p>“On accident while he was bathing ?”, Jaskier asks because he needs to give Lambert the benefit of the doubt and accidents do happen.</p><p> </p><p>“Is it still considered bathing if Aiden's legs were wrapped around his waist ?”, she asks him in return with a contemplating frown on her face.</p><p> </p><p><em>Definitely not</em>, Jaskier thinks and groans in exasperation at the news. He bravely resists the urge to run after the witchers to give Lambert a piece of his mind, and decides to inform Geralt of these news as soon as he arrives. His friend can then deal with his brother's shamelessness.</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe Coën will be a good influence on them ?”, he finally answers her and then tries to soothe her, “And don't worry, Geralt will keep them away from you if they insist on being gross. If they are even allowed to stay.”</p><p> </p><p>“Why wouldn't they be ?”, Ciri wonders.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, the Cats and the Wolves have a bloody history between them,” Jaskier explains vaguely, “Vesemir, Geralt and Eskel might not be comfortable with Aiden staying in their keep.”</p><p> </p><p>“That's stupid,” Ciri says and frowns, “Aiden's weird and besotted with Lambert but he's nice otherwise. He's not mean or violent.”</p><p> </p><p>“That doesn't erase all prejudice,” Jaskier says sadly and ruffles her hair, “Don't worry, we'll know soon enough and Vesemir's fair and level-headed. If Lambert can vouch for them, there's a good chance we'll see them again in a few days.”</p><p> </p><p>Ciri shrugs and goes back to doing cartwheels. She's clearly tireless.</p><p> </p><p>And two days after Lambert and his husbands, Jaskier spots two new figures approaching. He calls Cirilla eagerly, because it has to be Geralt, and they watch their progress avidly. Jaskier takes in his friend when he dismouts, and he finds him pale and thin, he'll have to force him to rest for a few days once they're in Kaer Morhen.</p><p> </p><p>Geralt immediately goes up to Cirilla, who launches herself at him, and the two of them hug tightly for a few long minutes. Jaskier turns away to give them some privacy when Cirilla starts to cry into Geralt's shoulder, turns towards the witcher's companion and groans in dismay when he sees Yennefer of Vengerberg staring at him with a smug and self-satisfied smile.</p><p> </p><p>“Witch,” he greets her.</p><p> </p><p>“Bard,” she says, nods at him and dismounts, “Your accomodation is... lacking.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, fuck you,” he grunts at her and flips her off.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> This winter is going to be a nightmare, he thinks and wonders if he can still make it to Ard Carraigh before the first snow falls. Probably not. </span>
  <span>
    <em>Fuck</em>
  </span>
  <span>, he reflects, </span>
  <span>
    <em>I'll be stuck in this madhouse for all winter, Geralt will so owe me for that</em>
  </span>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We're slowly getting there!<br/>And of course I wrote about Aiden, Coën and Lambert arriving at Kaer Morhen, I just need to proofread it again and I'll post it tomorrow in the grapevine.</p><p>Meanwhile "WitcherSexual" has started posting a new fic, "How Lambert met his Husbands", inspired by this one and the triad Aiden/Coën/Lambert ! I can only encourage you to go take a look, you'll find the link in the "Witchers' grapevine" :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Kaer Morhen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Geralt's bad winter is followed by an atrocious year. He runs left and right, passes for an idiot in front of a Viper and somehow ends up with Yennefer following him. And he still doesn't find his daughter.</p><p> </p><p>When his search in north Redania is unfruitful, he heads to Caingorn and then crosses into Kovir. That is where he gets word about another witcher. Usually he would avoid the place, but over winter Jaskier impressed upon him the need to seek his brethren out. Ciri's probably with one of them so he takes it upon himself to make an effort.</p><p> </p><p>He follows the witcher's trail and ends up at a campsite in a small clearing on a cool spring evening. He approaches the fire burning in the clearing warily and slowly under the other witcher's amused stare. </p><p> </p><p>Geralt spots the Viper medallion first and lets out a sigh of relief because he didn't end up meeting Letho. So the man is probably Auckes or Serrit. He doesn't know exactly which but vows to ask, he doesn't want to garner the same reputation as Eskel.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt ties Hope loosely to a tree and slowly creeps up to the fire. He sits down on the other side from the Viper and wonders if there are some guidelines he is supposed to follow here. He maybe should have quizzed Lambert more thoroughly about the grapevine.</p><p> </p><p>“Geralt, right ? Lambert's grumpy brother ?”, the Viper asks with a delighted smile and motions at the soup cooking on the fire.</p><p> </p><p>“I'm not grumpy,” Geralt says, “You Auckes or Serrit ?”</p><p> </p><p>“Auckes,” the man laughs, “You sure you don't want any soup ? It's not poisonned, I promise !”</p><p> </p><p>Geralt wonders if he should say no or if that answer would anger his host. He finally decides to get up again to fetch a mug his bag. He is hungry and the prospect of a free meal is very enticing.</p><p> </p><p>“Thanks,” Geralt says after Auckes serves him.</p><p> </p><p>“You're welcome. So what brings you to my fire ? No offense but your reputation of a grumpy loner precedes you.”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm looking for my horse,” Geralt says.</p><p> </p><p>And when he sees Auckes look past him at Hope, he realizes that he could have said something less stupid even if he doesn't want to mention his daughter by name. Geralt blushes under the Viper's disbelieving stare.</p><p> </p><p>“Right,” Auckes drawls, “No horse here though.”</p><p> </p><p>Geralt winces and busies himself with his soup. He tries again once his mug is finished.</p><p> </p><p>“I gave my horse to a kid. We got separated and I've been looking for them for a year now.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you're the one who got Fiona out of Cintra !”, Auckes exclaims.</p><p> </p><p>And Geralt just looks at him with wide eyes because Fiona ? It could be his daughter, he thinks, she might have given him a false name.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Blond hair ? Green eyes ? Small kid ?”, Geralt checks because he needs to be sure.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yeah, Jaskier's daughter. A real little spitfire that one.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And Geralt's lost. Jaskier's daughter ? How did Ciri go from beeing Cintra's princess to a bard's daughter ? And a spitfire ? From what Geralt remembers, his child was a small scared and angry little girl, not exactly a spitfire model.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Have you seen her lately ?”, Geralt asks to get back on track.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“No, I had her in spring last year,” the Viper exclaims, “Left her with Coën who, at the time, was headed to Aedirn. I heard that Letho had her in the fall, rescued her from the lovebirds, and he gave her to Dell. They were headed to Poviss.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt's head is swimming. Who the fuck is Dell ? And the lovebirds ? And Letho rescued her ? He doesn't even want to imagine what Ciri had to go through, because it sounds like she's being passed around witchers like an unwanted package. She has to be traumatized.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Who's Dell ?”, he asks as Auckes fills his mug again and Geralt offers him some jerky he got from his supplies in exchange.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“A Cat. Chatty one ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Letho gave her to a <em>Cat</em> ? What was he thinking ?”, Geralt rants and gets up because he needs to leave right now, “I didn't rescue her so that these psychopaths could use her as a target or whatever !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“They're not that bad, you know, unless you're in their way,” Auckes hums, “You have to at least have met Aiden if you're Lambert's brother ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt just stares dumbly at the Viper. Who the fuck is Aiden ? He remembers Lambert speaking about him once or twice but never in details. What does his little brother think he is doing playing around with a Cat ?</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Right, obviously you didn't,” Auckes continues and waves his concern away, “Forget I said anything. It's nothing important anyway.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt doesn't ask because he needs to be in Poviss yesterday, and he feels like what he would learn about his brother, if he asked Auckes, would probably unsettle him. He'll interrogate Lambert over the winter instead. Maybe all of this grapevine idea wasn't so bad as he thought.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm going to Poviss,” he grunts at the Viper, “If the Cat touched one hair of my... of Jaskier's daughter head, I'll skin your brother alive for letting her come to harm. You can share the news.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And the Cats ?”, he asks with a grin.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“There won't be a school of the Cat anymore once I'm done with them.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You know, that is why you have a reputation as a grump. You really need to relax. The Cats won't harm her, they're not heartless monsters. And they're scared of what the bard could do to them.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“The bard ?”, Geralt asks and wonders what the world is coming to if a bunch of assassins are fearing Jaskier.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yeah. They're not wrong when they say that he probably could incite a mob to hunt us all down. He's the reason our reputation is improving, if he decided to paint us as dangerous heartless killers that ought to be put down though, it'd probably take only a few years for the humans to hunt us all down. So don't worry too much.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'll worry until I find her. That is to say my horse.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Of course, your horse,” Auckes snorts, “You know, nobody won't hold it against you if you got attached to the kid. I like her well enough too, she is smart, resourceful and a pleasant travel companion. I'll take her on if someone tries to foist her on me again.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt just grunts at him and gets back up on Hope's saddle. He hopes that he'll find his daughter before the Viper. And he takes note to make sure that Ciri is okay when he finds her. He vows to hunt down every witcher that traumatized her. And he'll think about thanking some of them if it turns out that they were nice to her, it would only be fair.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt combs Poviss from east to west and learns that the last witcher the inhabitants saw passed through last autumn. He grumbles all the way back to Lan Exeter and decides to abandon the northern most territories. He won't find Ciri here.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>So he takes a boat south and disembarks in Novigrad. He spends a few days cleaning the sewers of drowners and the cemeteries of necrophages, and when everything's done, he heads to a tavern to enjoy one last beer before his departure.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He enters the first moderately-priced tavern he sees, asks for a tankard at the bar and freezes when he turns back. Yennefer of Vengerberg is here. And she's staring at him. He hasn't seen her since the mountain and doesn't really know how to react to her presence.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He missed her, but at the same time he remembers her burning anger at him and had been careful to avoid her in his travels. Apparently his luck has just run out. He gulps down his tankard in a few seconds, deposits it on the bar and heads out. He's not in the mood to deal with the sorceress.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He unties Hope from her post in front of the tavern and starts to head to the closest gates to leave. He has a child to find and no time to spare. But Yennefer apparently doesn't agree with him and Geralt gains a walking companion a few minutes later. He glances at her from the corner of his eyes and finds that the sorceress looks tired.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Her posture is still perfectly straight and her eyes alert, but he finds her complexion a bit wan, she has dark circles under her eyes and she looks thinner too. The last few months evidently haven't been kind to her. Not that he has any illusion that he's in a better shape. He's still not sleeping or eating well, and it shows.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Geralt,” Yennefer starts quietly, “Fancy running into you.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yennefer,” he greets, “You look like shit.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Like you have any room to talk.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He hums in agreement because she actually is right and continues on his way. Yennefer leaves him before they reach the gates and Geralt thinks that she'll disappear from his life again. To his surprise, she rides up to him a few hours out of Novigrad. He eyes her speculatively and doesn't comment.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They travel in silence and Geralt doesn't know how to break it. He doesn't want to speak about Ciri to her and knows better than to ask what she's doing. Yennefer will do what Yennefer wants, he has made peace with that fact by now. She doesn't apologize for her last angry words and he doesn't either, because even if he could have voiced his last wish better, he'll never regret saving her life.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They fall into bed, or rather into a bedroll, two weeks after leaving Novigrad and Geralt isn't even surprised by that fact. Their lovemaking is rough and angry, and they both wake up covered in each other's marks. It doesn't stop them from tumbling into bed again and again.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt starts to hunt and to forage more because Yennefer needs to eat, they stop more regularly in the evenings because Yennefer needs to sleep, and if everything has a positive effect on his health too, then it's only an added benefit. He knows that he must be a sad sight to look upon indeed when Yennefer starts to pester him to eat and sleep more too a month after their departure. His health slowly starts to improve, and he thinks that maybe he won't arrive in Kaer Morhen looking like a walking talking corpse.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Their journey following the river Pontar passes quickly and they reach Hagge at the end of the summer. Yennefer now knows that he is looking for his daughter, because he didn't manage to stay quiet about it, and despite the pain she feels where children are concerned, she's still following him stubbornly.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt has started to get used to the idea of taking her with him to Kaer Morhen, because she sure as hell doesn't show any inclination to leave him alone, and asks her to accompany him on the evening before he is set to enter Kaedwen. The sorceress just hums, shares his bedroll in the night and follows him the next morning.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt and Yennefer comb the western side of Kaedwen as they go north. Jaskier is supposed to search the eastern side and Ard Carraigh, and as their search proves unsuccessful, Geralt hopes his friend is being luckier than him. </p><p> </p><p>When the temperatures start to get really cold, Geralt decides to veer to the north east and to make his way to the trail leading up to the keep. He grumbles, snarls and grimaces all the way north, cursing his luck and Yennefer's long pitying looks.</p><p> </p><p>And finally after months of travel, they reach the beginning of the trail leading up to Kaer Morhen. Geralt first discerns a small campsite and then Jaskier appears and waves at them from afar. He turns back, says something Geralt can't hear from this far out, and a small figure joins him and waves enthusiastically at them.</p><p> </p><p>Geralt's heart misses a few beats, he's sure of it, and he urges Hope on. He finishes the last meters at a galop and jumps down from his horse as soon as he reaches the campsite. The small figure launches herself at him with a joyful cry and Geralt catches Ciri in his arms. He twirls her around a bit and she laughs bright and clear. Geralt hugs her tight.</p><p> </p><p>“Ciri,” he mumbles in her hair, “Oh, I'm so sorry. I've missed you so much.”</p><p> </p><p>“I'm so glad you're here, Geralt ! I missed you too. And don't worry, you're still my favorite witcher !”</p><p> </p><p>Geralt hums and makes note to ask her about her journey, because she sounds like she met several witchers already. He then <span>holds at arm's length and examines her carefully. She's wearing a harness with two daggers and a throwing hatchet, and Geralt wonders who let his precious child carry such weapons. </span></p><p> </p><p>But she's looking good, with a healthy complexion and arms that are slightly muscled. Her hair is dyed brown but has grown back since he cut it, and the heavy bags that used to mar her face have disappeared. He twirls her around a few more times and hugs her again when she begins to cry.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He finally lets her go when she calms down and goes to Jaskier to hug his friend tight.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “Thank you, my friend. Thank </span>
  <span>
    <em>you</em>
  </span>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't worry, Geralt, it was my pleasure,” Jaskier says and hugs him back.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He then goes to Roach, who looks well-rested and seems to be happy to see him too, and hugs her too. He's in a hugging mood today and doesn't feel an ounce of shame about it. When he's done petting his horse, he introduces Ciri and Yennefer, and the two look at each other with some curiosity mingled with wariness. Geralt hopes that they'll become fast friends.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> They decide to spend the rest of the day at the campsite and Ciri tells them about her journey over dinner. Geralt's almost sure that he'll have a heart attack before she finishes her tale. He soon realizes that he'll have to thank a few people and bash the teeth of a few others in – particularly Lambert and the fucking Cats – and is thinking about all the talking and brawling it'll involve, he already feels so </span>
  <span>
    <em>tired. </em>
  </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He's still excited to witness first hand all the new skills she boasts about and wonders if she'll agree to him giving her sword lessons, because apparently that is one of the only weapons she hasn't mastered yet. He'll teach her to play Gwent too, she'll probably like it.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri disappears after dinner to do the dishes and Geralt turns to Jaskier.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“How is she ?”, he asks him quietly because he needs to be sure that she's okay.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “She seems fine,” Jaskier answers with a shrug, “She's resourceful that's for sure, and seems well-ajusted for someone who spent a year being passed around witchers. She still has a few nightmares sometimes and is stubborn to a fault. You'll have your hands full with her, but I'm sure that you'll manage.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt hums and looks back at the spot where Ciri disappeared to go to the stream.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Anything I should avoid saying to her ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Not that I can think of. She's got a thick skin. Don't ask her to drop her weapons though, she won't take kindly to that. And don't open the saddlebag from hell !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Yennefer snorts at that and gets up to stretch herself.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Saddlebag from hell ?”, Geralt asks and looks at said item with suspicion.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “It's like she has an endless supplies of useful and scary things in there. She offered me a bomb, Geralt, a </span>
  <span>
    <em>bomb</em>
  </span>
  <span>. Who gives a bomb to a </span>
  <span>
    <em>twelve</em>
  </span>
  <span> years old girl ?”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Are you sure that she wasn't making fun of you ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Har har, of course that would be your first assumption. Just don't say that I didn't warn you if you go rummaging through it.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt's curious but he's not going to go looting through Ciri's things without her knowledge. He'll ask her on the way to the keep and check that she's being safe. And well, by the time he was twelve, he already knew how to create and use bombs too, so he could always say that it runs in the family.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>The four of them go up the trail slowly and Geralt does his best to take care of his guests. Ciri and Jaskier spend the last day of travel on the horses' backs, because he doesn't want to see them tumble down the moutain, and Yennefer easily keeps pace with him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He does ask about the saddlebag but Ciri evades his question and looks shifty, so maybe Jaskier wasn't completely wrong when he said that his daughter kept weird, and possibly dangerous, things in there. He checks with her to see if she's storing everything safely, and leaves it at that when she assures him that she's being careful. He'll wear her down over winter.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They're all relieved when they finally spot the keep four days after leaving the campsite, and Geralt lets out a long sigh of relief when they cross the gates of Kaer Morhen in the evening. Jaskier is shivering atop Hope and Ciri's huddled in a heavy blanket but they're fine. He leads Roach and Hope to the stables and stares stupidly at the four horses present.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He recognizes Eskel's, Lambert's and Vesemir's mounts but the fourth horse is a stranger. Maybe the tale Jaskier told him about his youngest brother's husbands is true after all. He and Ciri take care of the horses, and Geralt wonders how she could still be so full of energy after a four days climb. Jaskier huddles next to Eskel's horse and Yennefer's leaning against the threshold taking in the courtyard in the dim light of the evening.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>When they are done, Geralt leads his guests to the keep and they deposit their bags in the entrance hall with relieved sighs. And then they all notice the screaming and exchange a few wondering stares. Vesemir's loud voice is coming from the kitchen and he sounds really angry and exasperated to Geralt. They slowly creep towards the door anyway.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “Eskel ! Keep your damn goat off of the damn table or she'll end up in a stew soon enough !”, Vesemir yells loudly, “And if your hand creeps any higher on that thigh, Lambert, you'll spend your damn night in the stables with the horses ! And would you use your damn </span>
  <span>
    <em>CUTLERY</em>
  </span>
  <span> ?!”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>When Geralt opens the kitchen's door, with Ciri under his arm and Jaskier and Yennefer peering over his shoulders, he doesn't expect to be greeted with the strange scene they come across.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Vesemir is standing at the head of the table clearly angered. Eskel is cuddling a goat that is standing on one of the kitchen's benches, and since when are animals allowed in there, Geralt wonders. And Lambert, Lambert is sitting between two unfamiliar witchers – so Jaskier <em>really</em> told the truth – and is being hand fed by the one sitting on his right while his hand disappears under the table to probably caress the thigh of the one sitting on his left.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And you, Geralt !”, Vesemir continues to rant when he spots him, “Is there a sign down the fucking mountain that is saying “Wide open keep, bring all the strays you collect over your journey” ? Because I sure as hell missed it last time I was down there !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt just shrugs and stares at the chaos of the kitchen.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You look like shit,” Vesemir says gruffly after a small pause and plops back down on his seat with a huff, “Come in and take a seat.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>That is all it takes for Ciri to run towards Eskel and to hug him. His brother clearly isn't expecting the gesture and looks helplessly at Geralt who just smirks.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm so sorry, uncle Eskel,” Ciri whispers in the witcher's neck but Geralt still clearly hears her, “I didn't mean to be rude. Serrit said that you were daft !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Hum, apology accepted ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Eskel pats her on the back and continues to stare at Geralt. Lambert is snickering in the background.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“What is she apologizing for ?”, he mouths silently at Geralt and adds a few seconds later, “Uncle ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt smirks and steps in. He wasn't really sure if he wanted to introduce Ciri as his daughter with two unfamiliar witchers in the keep. But she took the matters into her own hands and let the secret out, so Geralt really hopes Lambert's friends are trustworthy.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You already all know Jaskier,” Geralt says as he enters the kitchen, “This is my dauther, Ciri and this is my... friend Yennefer of Vengerberg. Ciri, Yennefer, meet Eskel, Vesemir and Lambert.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Wait, your daughter ?”, Lambert asks and narrows his eyes at Ciri who waves cheekily at him, “We thought she was Jaskier's !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I never said I was Jaskier's,” Ciri explains and plops down on the bench next to Eskel's goat, “Ivo interpreted wrongly what I said when I found him, and nobody asked me after that.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And who're your guests ?”, Geralt asks abruptly to steer the conversation away of Ciri's background after shooing the goat away.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“My husbands,” Lambert announces defiantly and Geralt can already sense that it's going to be a long winter if his brother is already so wound up, “Coën of the Griffin and Aiden of the Cat.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt just hums and stares at the men. They offer him small smiles and he wonders how they manage to put up with Lambert. He'll keep an eye on them in the next few months.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Lambert, fetch the stew for the late arrivals,” Vesemir orders.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>His brother scowls but obeys and Yennefer sits to his right, Ciri to his left and Jaskier ends up at the other end of the table. They are served quickly and busy themselves with their meals in silence for a while. Vesemir's temper seems to abate a little, Lambert picks up his fork and knife when Coën points out that there is a child in the room, and Eskel's goat curls up in front of the fire. Everything's calm.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“So, Jaskier said that there was bad blood between the Cats and the Wolves ? Why ?”, Ciri asks when she's scraping the bottom of her bowl.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Coën and Eskel loudly clear their throat, Aiden looks pained, Vesemir just lets out an exasperated sigh and Lambert glowers at his kid.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Not a dinner appropriate question, Ciri,” Geralt tells her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Oh, sorry,” she mumbles and looks back down at her bowl.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt pats her back gently.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “I've got one better,” Lambert intervenes, “Where did </span>
  <span>
    <em>you</em>
  </span>
  <span> pick up a sprog ?”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “Fuck off ! Where did you pick up two </span>
  <span>
    <em>bedwarmers </em>
  </span>
  <span>?”, Geralt counters angrily because he doesn't want to explain Ciri's history right now.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “Where did you pick up the </span>
  <span>
    <em>cunt</em>
  </span>
  <span> ?”, Lambert then snarls.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “Careful,” Yennefer says sweetly but with a mean smile, “The cunt could turn you into a </span>
  <span>
    <em>worm</em>
  </span>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“All of you shut up !”, Vesemir orders and they hasten to obey.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I like him,” Ciri whispers to him and points to Vesemir, “He's scary. Can he teach me to be scary too ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You're plenty scary already, Ciri,” Geralt whispers back, “I'm still your favorite though right ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt sees Ciri nod eagerly at him and Vesemir, Eskel and Jaskier all smile softly at him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“So who's your second favorite witcher ?”, Jaskier asks with a shit-eating grin because he just can't resist stiring up trouble.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Auckes !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Why is Auckes second ?”, Lambert whines, “I taught you how to make bombs ! And I'm your uncle apparently !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“He taught me how to <em>steal</em> ! It's more fun,” Ciri says with a grin.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“So where am I in your preference scale ?”, Coën asks with a grin.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You're fourth, after Geralt, Auckes and Serrit,” Ciri explains after a few seconds spent thinking about it.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Lambert splutters next to the Griffin, Aiden soothingly rubs his shoulder and Geralt smirks at him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And where are we ?”, Lambert then asks loudly and points at Aiden and himself.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“At the bottom of the list,” Ciri deadpans, “Even Eskel and Vesemir, who I just met, are ranked higher than you.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Yennefer lets out a loud snort and Jaskier erupts in laughter. Geralt smiles at his daughter and ruffles her hair affectionately. Lambert seems to want to start a new argument about the list and Vesemir growls again. The rest of dinner is spent in blessed silence and even Jaskier refrains from humming after Vesemir narrows his eyes at him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Eskel, the dishes.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'll help,” Ciri volunteers and gets up to help Eskel collect the empty bowls.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They put everything in the small sink and then come back with two apple pies. Eskel and Ciri deposit them in front of Lambert, and Geralt stares at the desserts. That is an unusual sight.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Lambert and Coën baked them this afternoon,” Eskel whispers quietly to him when he sees that he can't quite tear his gaze away from them.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Lambert ?”, Geralt wonders and quickly shuts his mouth when Vesemir clears his throat.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> His youngest brother cuts the pies, deposits one in front of the Cat with a disturbing besotted smile, and hands out a slice to everyone else. </span>
  <span>
    <em>Don't ask</em>
  </span>
  <span>, Eskel mouths at him with a smile and Geralt rolls his eyes.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>The Cat looks torn as the second pie is cut and shared, despite the fact that he has a whole one for himself. After a few seconds of being subjected to puppy dog eyes, Lambert and Coën sigh and give their slices over to the Cat.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “You </span>
  <span>
    <em>so</em>
  </span>
  <span> owe us for that,” he hears Lambert mutter under his breath.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> His brother and the Griffin cross their arms over their chests, and Geralt looks between his apple pie slice and the Cat in puzzlement. Aiden has starting eating now but still looks so miserable he's starting to feel uncomfortable. Ciri is the next one to let out a sigh and to slide her slice towards Aiden. Jaskier, Eskel and Vesemir soon follow suit but they at least grumble about it.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt hesitates, because he doesn't really understand what is happening, but the Cat's dejected face doesn't really encourages him to enjoy the pie. He hesitates and then Lambert starts to glare at him and Geralt lets out a sigh of defeat, he gives his slice over. And when his brother insists and continues to glare at him, he steals Yennefer's plate too and offers it to the Cat while she lets out a small sound of disgust.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>And then Geralt witnesses the weirdest sight of the evening yet. The Cat stuffs his face full, lets out small sounds of contentment between bites and Lambert and Coën just watch him eat with the most disgustingly infatuated expressions on their faces. Geralt has no doubt left that they are completely and utterly in love with one another.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Girl, there're some pears in the pantry. Could you fetch us some ?”, Vesemir then grumbles at Ciri and points towards the stairs leading to the pantries.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>She gets up again and runs to the pantry. Geralt hears her rummage through the supplies and she comes back with her arms ladden with fruits. She gives one to each of them and plops back down next to Geralt again. They eat their desserts in silence, and as soon as they are done, Geralt scoops Ciri up and carries her out.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“So bath or bed ?”, he asks her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Bath !”, she exclaims, “I want to see the hot springs !”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt hums and carries her down to the springs. Ciri lets out a small sound of delight when she sees the pools, and Geralt has to hold her back lest she jumps into the water fully clothed. He sighs fondly and hands her a towel to wrap around herself. He turns her back on her, undresses quickly, firmly wraps a towel around his own waist and turns back when he hears her splashing around in one of the pools.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt joins his daughter and relaxes in the hot water. Jaskier and Yennefer join them a few minutes later and Geralt points meaningfully at the towels next to the entrance. They change quickly and join them too. The three of them then lean on the edge of the bath and watch Ciri splash around and dive in the pool.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You didn't tell me that your family was so entertaining, Geralt,” Yennefer says after a few minutes.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Tiresome or exasperating are the words I'd use instead,” he grumbles and Jaskier snorts next to him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span> “I'm pretty sure Lambert will lead Vesemir to an early grave,” Jaskier comments, “Cirilla, darling, come here and let me wash your hair properly, please. It's a truly horrendous mess.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Ciri dives two more times under the water before coming up to them and sitting in front of Jaskier. The bard had the presence of mind to bring some soap and he lathers Ciri's hair thoroughly. He hums under his breath while he works and Geralt watches Ciri slowly be lulled to sleep. When he's done, Jaskier catches her before she disappears under the water and Geralt scoops her up again.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Yennefer lets out a yawn of her own, and Jaskier and her follow him out of the bath. Yennefer fetches their bags, that she deposited in front of the hot springs when she came down, and hands Ciri some clean clothes. Geralt helps her get dressed, and carries her upstairs on his back when they are all done. She falls asleep before they reach the first landing.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Jaskier and Yennefer carry all of their bags and a torch, and Geralt points at several stairs, corridors and doors for the sorceress' benefit. They happen upon Eskel on the stairs in front of the third floor, and he prevents Jaskier from heading to the room he used the last time he was here.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“We've relocated all of our rooms on the fourth floor since Lambert got home and doesn't seem to want to move his from the second to the first floor. You can try it here if you want,” he adds with a grin, “but don't come running back to any of us if you can't sleep.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“The fourth floor seems perfect,” Jaskier sighs and follows Eskel up the stairs.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>They run into Vesemir on the fourth floor corridor too, and Geralt boggles at him because he usually sleeps at the very end of the first floor.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Are they that bad ?”, Geralt asks Eskel after they leave Jaskier in an empty room with a freshly made bed.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Worse than anything you can imagine,” Eskel grimaces, “But we're almost sure that Lambert is being obnoxious on purpose. Probably to see if we can endure what he is putting us through, and if we're going to snap at one of his husbands and throw them out or something. I think he's somewhat scared of our reactions. We can only hope they'll calm down as winter progresses.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Lambert married and scared ? What has the world come to ?”, Geralt asks and rolls his eyes.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“And you with a child,” Eskel comments and then asks, “You three are sharing ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yen ?”, he asks her.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Not tonight. I need my space and you're going to want to keep her close, right ?”, she asks and motions at Ciri.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yes,” Geralt nods, “I don't want her to wake up alone in an unfamiliar place. We'll get her a room tomorrow.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Eskel then leads Yennefer away and Geralt heads for the room his brother points him to in passing. He deposits Ciri carefully on the bed and tucks her in slowly so as not to waker her up. She burrows under the blankets and furs and Geralt gently strokes her hair. Eskel gently clears his throat on the doorstep and drops off their bags in one of the corners of the room.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“She's asleep ?”, he asks as he comes in to stand next to Geralt.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Yes. Didn't even wake up. She must have been tired.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You know, I really want to hear the story of how you acquired that kid.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“She's Cintra's princess,” he whispers, “I saved her father's life and stupidly asked for the law of surprise.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“No shit ?!”, Eskel exclaims.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“She's being hunted by Nilfgaard. That's why we got separated almost two years ago.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Fuck,” Eskel mutters and grips his shoulder in silent support, “She'll be safe here. We'll keep her safe.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Thanks,” Geralt says gruffly and squeezes Eskel's hand in return.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't worry. What's yours is mine, right ?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Don't tell Lambert that,” Geralt smirks at his brother.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“You ass. Come on, get into the bed and go the fuck to sleep. You look completely exhausted.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt hums and follows his brother's directions. He ends up on top of the blankets but under the furs on Ciri's other side. He's glad that he finally managed to bring his daughter home to a safe place.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I'm happy to be home,” he whispers quietly in the dark.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“We're glad to have you back, Geralt,” Eskel answers him from the threshold of his room, “Goodnight brother.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Goodnight brother,” Geralt whispers back as Eskel closes the door behind him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Geralt soon closes his eyes and relaxes back into the bed. His and his child's stomachs are full, they're clean, they're warm and they're safe. For the first time in a very long time, Geralt goes to sleep quickly and easily.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And I'm done :D</p><p>I still have got one last chapter for the grapevine that I'll try to get out tomorrow.</p><p>This series is closed for the moment but it's possible that I'll come back to it later.<br/>I still have a few ideas floating in my head, some scraps of dialogues I didn't manage to include in the existing chapters and things I wanted to explore with some characters (Mal notably, our dear triad of course, Vesemir and maybe Eskel...) that I didn't write yet.<br/>I have holidays coming up in two weeks, I'll see if I manage to write something then.</p><p>I thank you all for your support. Your comments and kudos really helped me going on!<br/>I usually start my days by reading your comments on the train to work and it really brightens my mornings :D</p><p>Finally I hope you had as much joy reading it as I had writing it! It was a fun journey.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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